The family of Aghil Keshavarz, a student on death row, have held a final visit with him at Orumiyeh Central Prison amid growing concerns that his execution could take place at any moment, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.
“On Wednesday, 17 December, the student sentenced to death was transferred to solitary confinement at Orumiyeh Central Prison for the implementation of the sentence. On Thursday, his family were summoned from Isfahan for a final visit. The Keshavarz family arrived outside Orumiyeh Prison on Thursday evening, but were told that their son had been transferred to Tehran”, a source told KHRN.
According to the source, the family ultimately managed to hold the visit at noon today. During the visit, his mother lost consciousness due to severe emotional distress.
Despite claims by prison authorities regarding a possible transfer to Tehran, the source said that the risk of his execution in the coming hours remains high.
Keshavarz, a 27-year-old architecture student from Isfahan who studies at Shahrood University, was arrested in June by agents of the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) while travelling to Orumiyeh during Israel’s attack on Iran.
On 18 December, an informed source told KHRN: “Following his arrest, he was held for a week at the detention centre of the IRGC’s Intelligence Organisation Orumiyeh, where he was interrogated and tortured in an attempt to force him to confess to spying for Israel. He was then transferred to Evin Prison [in Tehran]. He was held there at the time of the Israeli bombing, after which he was moved to another detention facility. After the interrogation period ended, he was transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison, where he was sentenced to death in late summer by Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Sajjad Dousti, on charges of ‘espionage for Israel’.”
The source added: “Due to threats from security interrogators, he and his family had refrained from speaking publicly about the case. In recent days, he was informed in prison that his sentence had been upheld by the Special Court for Espionage Crimes.”
