Famous athlete Ismayil Keşaverz, who lives in Urmia, South Azerbaijan, was detained in the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Northern Iraq about 40 days ago. According to his family’s claim, the athlete was tortured during this time. Keşaverz went to the city of Erbil, Iraq to open a karate hall on January 21st. Immediately after reaching his goal, he was taken into custody by the local Kurdish police. Despite the long time since the arrest of the Azerbaijani athlete, there was no information in the Iranian press. Keshavser’s wife Nazenin Zengbari, “İsmail is karate coach and world champion. He went to Arbil to open Karate Hall. However, Kurdish security forces took him into custody. In fact, he has no connection with any organs. ”
“After this, we passed the Iranian Consulate in Arbil, but so far there are no results. In the meantime, we got permission to meet İsmail. Unfortunately, we have seen traces of torture in his face. No claims were made about him. We hope that all the authorities, including the governor of West Azerbaijan, Mahdi Shahrari, will help by using his authority. We are grateful to Urmiye deputy Nadir Gazipur and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Müntazemy for the work they have done. This is a serious problem for the whole family. For this reason, we call on the Azerbaijani people to support government officials and save Ishmael.”
In recent days the athlete’s brother Ibrahim Keshavers has addressed the “Ilna” news agency with the story of his brother’s arrest. Ismayin’s daughter and her husband were shocked by a three-minute call. Abraham Keshaverz said that he saw his brother’s daughter and his brother’s face in a scars.