Shahin Vasaf, a Kurdish prisoner whose death sentence for “espionage for Israel” had been overturned and reduced to 10 years’ imprisonment, has been retried at the Court of Appeal in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province.
Vasaf, a Kurdish citizen from Salmas who resides in Orumiyeh, was retried after the Orumiyeh deputy prosecutor challenged the original prison sentence issued against him, but no verdict has yet been issued.
An informed source who spoke to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said: “Shahin Vassaf left Iran in 2017 and applied for asylum in Turkey. While his case was under review, he returned to Iran in September 2022 due to family problems and was arrested by Ministry of Intelligence agents a few days after his arrival.”
He was detained for approximately four months at the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention centre in Orumiyeh, where he was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture in an attempt to force him to confess to “spying for Israel”.
During this period, Ministry of Intelligence agents also arrested his father and forced him to accept the fabricated scenario presented by interrogators through pressure.
He was later transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison, and in October 2023, after two video conference sessions, he was sentenced to death within minutes by Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Najafzadeh, while deprived of the right to a lawyer of his choosing.
Following an appeal, Branch 39 of the Supreme Court overturned the death sentence due to deficiencies in the case and referred it back for reconsideration.
In summer 2025, he was retried by another branch presided over by Judge Dousti and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Despite his acceptance of the verdict, the deputy prosecutor of Orumiyeh, Sarkhanlou, objected to the sentence. As a result, the case was referred to Branch 39 of the Supreme Court again, which forwarded it to Branch One of the Court of Appeals in Orumiyeh.
A hearing was held via video conference on 21 February 2026 in the presence of a prosecutor’s representative, but no verdict has yet been issued.
