Iran: “Navid Afkari fighter executed for murder during 2018 riots”

Iran has announced that it has completed the execution of Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old professional wrestler convicted of a murder committed during the street riots of the summer of 2018. Fars Province General Karem Mousavi: The “qesas” sentence, in based on the “law of reprisals”, it was carried out this morning in a prison in the city of Shiraz at the “insistence of the victim’s family”.

Accuses him

Afkari was convicted of “voluntary manslaughter” for stabbing Hossein Torkman on August 2, 2018, who according to Human rights observer That day, an official was part of the police force, when Shiraz and other centers had been the scene of protests against the government due to the country’s economic difficulties. Authorities say he worked for the Public Water service. Navid and his brother Vahid, Sentenced to 25 years in prison for complicity, they were arrested in September on dozens of charges: participation in illegal demonstrations, insults of the Supreme Leader, “moharebeh” (“war against God”) and murder. A third brother, Habib, was also sentenced to 7 years in prison.

International mobilization

The international mobilization did not help: not only Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, but also mel International Olympic Committee and some world wrestling champions they had launched appeals. On September 5, Iranian state television broadcast a video at 8.30 pm in which Navid Afkari staged the moment of the crime showing how it would have happened. Human rights organizations had indicated that the sentence is based on a confession that would have been extorted for torture – as Afkari stated in a letter written on September 13, 2019. The fighter’s lawyer tweeted that several Iranians had met with the family of the murdered man to convince them to ask for forgiveness that could have saved his life.