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World wrestling champion Navid Afkar was executed in Iran after the court found him guilty of killing a security guard during anti-government protests two years ago, Iranian state media reported on Saturday.
Navid Afkari, Iranian World Wrestling Champion (Photo: EPA / NWRI)
Kazim Musavi, president of the court in southern Iran’s Fars province, said the verdict was carried out in the morning in the provincial capital, Shiraz, where in 2018, according to the verdict, Afkari stabbed an employee. of a water company during a demonstration.
Afkari’s confession was witnessed by Iranian state media last week, but analysts say the recording was very similar to hundreds of other confessions that authorities have allegedly squeezed out over the past ten years.
The athlete’s case has caused international resonance, with the president of the United States, Donald Trump, among others, apologizing for the 27-year-old man. Following an online campaign for Afkari, voices calling for the abolition of the death penalty in Iran have once again intensified.
Nasrin Sotoudeh, a Sakharov Prize-winning human rights lawyer who has been on a hunger strike for nearly a month due to poor conditions, also spoke in the case, assuring Afkari of his support.
The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, expressed his surprise and said that the organization was shocked by the execution of the fighter. He indicated that it was very sad that international grace efforts had not achieved their goal. “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Navíd Afkari” – Wrote the president of the IOC.
An international organization representing the interests of athletes, the World Players Association (WPA), has previously proposed that Iran be excluded from the world of sport if the death sentence against Navík Afkari is carried out.
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