Keyvan Rashozadeh, a former political prisoner who was released from Orumiyeh Central Prison in October 2024 after serving five years in prison, was re-arrested on 21 December 2024 by the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during a raid on his family’s home in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province.
Following the arrest, the IRGC intelligence agents took Rashozadeh to the military-security organisation’s detention facility in the city.
In a recent phone call, Rashozadeh informed his family that he had been transferred from the detention facility to Orumiyeh Central Prison.
The political prisoner said that he had been subjected to severe torture during his detention, leaving him with visible injuries. Despite his condition, prison officials have denied him access to the prison clinic.
Following his release, Rashozadeh was reportedly repeatedly summoned by IRGC Intelligence, pressured and severely beaten in an attempt to force him to cooperate. After refusing these demands, he was warned that he had “no right to live in Iran and must leave the country immediately”.
Background
Rashozadeh was first arrested in Orumiyeh on 8 October 2019, along with civilians Kamran Ghassemi, Omid Saeidi and Nayeb (Masoud) Hajizadeh, and taken to the IRGC’s Al-Mahdi detention facility in the city.
After one month of interrogation in the detention facility, the four civilians were transferred to the youth section of Orumiyeh Central Prison.
In December 2020, after a year of uncertainty, Branch Two of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh sentenced the four individuals to ten years and one day each in prison on charges of “acting against national security” through their alleged membership of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan.
Rashozadeh’s sentence was later commuted to seven years and six months after his “submission to the verdict”.
In November 2020, together with Omid Saeidi, he went on a week-long hunger strike to protest against the uncertainty of their situation, the pressure from the Ministry of Intelligence and the failure of the prison authorities to respect the principle of separation of crimes in the juvenile section of Orumiyeh Central Prison.
In June 2022, Rashozadeh sewed his lips shut and went on another hunger strike for several days to protest the denial of his requests for leave by prison officials and the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh.
His last hunger strike took place on 17 April 2024, when he protested against torture by prison staff and the Ministry of Intelligence’s opposition to his conditional release. This strike lasted 15 days.
On the eleventh day of his hunger strike, Nazdar Roudsaz, Rashozadeh’s mother, expressed grave concern for her son’s health, revealing that he had been tortured by prison guards after being handcuffed and shackled.
