Iran Executes Young Wrestler Navid Afkari Despite Global Outcry !
Iran Executes Young Wrestler Navid Afkari over the charge of murder of a watchman during a wave of anti-government protests in 2018. The 27-year-old was a national champion in wrestling. The game has a long history and is is additionally very fashionable in Iran.
As per the human rights activists in Iran, Vahid and Habib, Afkari’s brothers were also sentenced to prison for 54 and 27 years respectively in the same case. Their mother said that her sons were forced to testify against one another.
According to the report of state media, Afkari was hanged in the southern city of Shiraz. He was also found to be tortured to make a confession. However, the Iranian authorities denied the accusation of torture. Afkari’s lawyer stated that his client had been deprived of meeting his family for the last time.
His lawyer added stated that the video footage that used as evidence was taken an hour before the incident.
Human rights organisation Amnesty International described Afkari’s death sentence as a “travesty of justice”. The group released a video.
In the video, Afkari says:
“If I am executed, I want you to know that an innocent person, even though he tried and fought with all his strength to be heard, was executed.”
“Were you in such a hurry to carry out the sentence that you deprived Navid of the last visit?” Hassan Younesi said on Twitter.
A union was also formed, including 85,000 athletes worldwide to prevent the execution.
The World Players Association said that he had been “unjustly targeted” for participating in the protests, and involved Iran’s expulsion from world sport if it went ahead with the execution.
The US president, Trump also said, “sole act was an anti-government demonstration on the streets”.