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Navin Askari / Photo: collected
Iran has executed a young international fighter despite protests around the world. Al-Jazeera quoted Iranian state media as saying.
Naveed Afkari, a 26-year-old fighter, was sentenced to death on Saturday for allegedly killing Hassan Turkman, a security guard for the water company, during anti-government protests in Iran in 2016. Previously, Iran’s Supreme Court rejected a review of the case.
Afkari was Iran’s national champion in wrestling. His popularity in Iran was skyrocketing.
Naveed and his two brothers led the Iranian anti-government protests from the front. At that time, thousands of people took to the streets in protest against the deterioration of the financial situation, unemployment and corruption in the country.
Naveed was charged with stabbing to death a security guard on August 2, 2016 during the upheaval. Naveed and his two brothers were arrested on the charge. At the end of the trial, one of his two brothers was imprisoned for 54 years and the other for 27 years. But Naveed was sentenced to death.
Sports clubs from around the world joined the protest against Naveed’s punishment. The president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, called on the Iranian government to abolish Naveed’s death sentence. The same call was made by the president of the United States himself, Doland Trump.
At that time, 75,000 athletes from around the world wrote open letters to the Iranian government. The Iranian Olympic Committee, the World Wrestling Federation and the Iranian Wrestling Federation made similar requests. But nothing happened.
Naveed Afkari has been hanged in the city of Shiraz, in southern Iran. His lawyer claims that Naveed was forced to confess to the murder through torture and ill-treatment in prison. The government has not provided accurate evidence. His lawyer alleged that he was not even allowed to see his family for the last time before his execution.
The human rights group Amnesty International has expressed outrage at the incident. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in a statement that the death penalty was “extremely tragic.”
Bangladesh time: 2049 hours, September 13, 2020
MHM
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