Iran hangs wrestler Navid Afkari, despite global calls to stay execution

Fazel Hawramy

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iranian authorities have said that they executed Navid Afkari, a wrestler whose plight caught the world's attention, several days after he was tortured and kept in solitary confinement.

“The retribution in kind (qesas) of Navid Afkari charged with murder was carried out…at the insistence of the family of the deceased this morning,” the head of Fars province judiciary was quoted as saying by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated Tasnim News.

According to Amnesty International, the last time anyone had heard from Afkari was on September 6, when he made a brief phone call to his family and told them he was being kept in the city of Shiraz's notorious Adelabad prison under “harsh conditions” and “high security” measures.


“It pains me to say we didn’t do enough to save #NavidAfkari," Iranian-American Hollywood actress Nazanin Boniadi, who campaigned on Afkari’s behalf wrote on Twitter. "Our job must now be to hold the Islamic Republic authorities accountable for this travesty of justice. I am devastated for his mother who pleaded for our help. I’m so sorry that we couldn’t save Navid.”

The 27-year-old was detained on September 17, 2018, one month after widespread anti-government protest, and charged with killing of an employee of the state-run Water and Sewage Department in Shiraz. Afkari was handed two death sentences by Branch One of Shiraz' criminal court; one for qesas, and another for moharebeh (enmity against god). The ruling was later upheld by Branch 35 of Iran's Supreme Court.

Two of Afkari’s brothers, Vahid and and Habib, were also sentenced to 56 years, six months and 24 years and three months in prison plus 74 lashes each for the same offence. The three faced a “grossly unfair” trial, according to Amnesty, with the brothers saying that the confessions used to convict them in court were extracted under torture.

Two days after the three brothers were taken to undisclosed locations on September 3 and held incommunicado, state-run TV aired a special report that sought to convince the public of the brothers' guilt over the murder. The program contained confessions to the crime from Navid Afkari, which the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), an authoritative body that monitor human rights abuses in Iran, believes were extracted under torture.

Their parents recently pleaded with head of the judiciary Ebrahim Raisi to order an examination of their sons, to establish whether or not injury to Vahid and Habib from a recent transfer to Adelabad prison were sustained through beatings and wider mistreatment. However, no such investigation was launched by the judiciary authorities.

Extracting confessions under duress is commonly used by Iranian authorities to establish guilt.Between 2009 and 2019, Iranian state media broadcast forced confessions from least 355 individuals, according to a report published in June by Justice4Iran, a London-based human rights organization monitoring abuses in the country.

In recent weeks, several sport and human rights bodies have called on Iran to stop Navid's execution, but to no avail.

The World Players Association, a leading voice of organized players in the governance of world sport, called on Iran to stay the execution. The association also asked the International Olympic Committee to threaten Iran with expulsion if it was to enact the death sentence.

"Our hearts are broken. Islamic Republic murdered #NavidAfkari, an innocent man for the crime of protesting," Iranian human rights activist Masih Alinejad said on Twitter after news of his execution. "When I talked to his mother, she had hope the world could save his son. He was a wrestler. Our demand is for the world to ban Islamic Republic from international sports."

Sporting world reacts

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the execution as a “vicious and cruel act.”

“It is an outrageous assault on human dignity, even by the despicable standards of this region. The voices of the Iranian people will not be silent,” he tweeted.

The sporting world, which rallied to ask Iran to stay Navid Afkari’s execution, is reeling from the news. 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it was “shocked” Iran had carried out the exeuction. IOC President Thomas Bach had written appeals for mercy to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani. “It is deeply upsetting that the pleas of athletes from around the world and all the behind-the-scenes work of the IOC, together with the NOC [National Olympic Committee] of Iran, United World Wrestling and the National Iranian Wrestling Federation, did not achieve our goal,” read an IOC statement on Saturday.  

The World Players Association, a union representing 85,000 athletes, said reports of Afkari’s execution were “heartbreaking.” The union is “determined to ensure Navid did not lose his life in vain,” said executive director Brendan Schwab.  

UNI Global Union, a trade union representing 20 million workers, said news of Afkari’s execution was “horrific.”

“As a popular & well-known athlete, Navid was targeted by the Iranian regime for taking part in anti-government protests. UNI, & his supporters around the world, mourn his death,” the union tweeted.

In 2019, Iran executed at least 251 people, second only to China, according to Amnesty International.

Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, warned that "Political executions in Iran are on the rise."

"If we remain silent in face of the injustice we saw against #NavidAfkari, we will see more state violence against peaceful protestors and more lives will be lost, exasperating Iran’s political repression," he tweeted.

In protests last November, at least 304 people were killed and 7,000 people arrested as authorities used what the United Nations described as "excessive and lethal force."   

 
Updated at 10:19 pm