Iran executes wrestler over 2018 security guard killing
Iran's international wrestler Navid Afkari was found guilty of stabbing a water supply company employee in the southern city of Shiraz amid the 2018 unrest.
Iran has said it has executed a young wrestler over the murder of a public sector worker during anti-government protests in August 2018.
Navid Afkari was executed on Saturday morning at a prison in the southern city of Shiraz, provincial prosecutor general Kazem Mousavi was quoted as saying on state television's website.
The 27-year-old had been found guilty of "voluntary homicide" for stabbing to death Hossein Torkman, a water department worker, on August 2, 2018, according to the judiciary.
Shiraz and several other urban centres across the Islamic republic had been the scene that day of anti-government protests and demonstrations over economic and social hardship.
Reports published abroad say Afkari was condemned on the basis of confessions extracted under torture, prompting online campaigns of support for his release.
The judiciary's Mizan Online news agency denied the accusations.
The sentence had been carried out at "the insistence of the victim's family", said Mousavi, the prosecutor general for Fars province.
Afkari's lawyer, Hassan Younessi, said on Twitter that a number of people in Shiraz were to meet with the slain worker's family on Sunday to ask for their forgiveness.
He also said that based on criminal law in Iran "the convict has a right to meet his family before the execution."
"Were you in such a hurry to carry out the sentence that you deprived Navid of his last visit?"
The mullahs’ criminal regime hanged #NavidAfkari this morning. The people of #Iran and its brave youth will not remain silent against the cowardly execution of this courageous son of #Shiraz. They will rise in solidarity with the heroic people of Fars.
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) September 12, 2020
Trump worried over the case
US President Donald Trump had pleaded for Afkari's life earlier this month, saying that his "sole act was an anti-government demonstration on the streets".
"To the leaders of Iran, I would greatly appreciate if you would spare this young man's life, and not execute him. Thank you!" he wrote on Twitter.
Trump has maintained an aggressive approach of "maximum pressure" toward longtime US foe Iran since becoming president, enacting crippling economic sanctions after withdrawing from a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran and world powers in 2018.
Hearing that Iran is looking to execute a great and popular wrestling star, 27-year-old Navid Afkarai, whose sole act was an anti-government demonstration on the streets. They were protesting the “country’s worsening economic situation and inflation”...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2020
Iran's reply to Trump
Iran responded to Trump’s tweet with a nearly 11-minute state TV package on Afkari. It included the weeping parents of the slain water company employee, Hassan Torkaman.
The package included footage of Afkari on the back of a motorbike, saying he had stabbed Torkaman in the back, without explaining why he allegedly carried out the assault.
The state TV segment showed blurred police documents and described the killing as a “personal dispute,” without elaborating. It said Afkari’s cellphone had been in the area and it showed surveillance footage of him walking down a street, talking on his phone.
Also, Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency dismissed Trump’s tweet in a feature story, saying that American sanctions have hurt Iranian hospitals amid the pandemic.
“Trump is worried about the life of a murderer while he puts many Iranian patients’ lives in danger by imposing severe sanctions,” the agency said.
READ MORE: Iran's Rouhani says no talks with US unless sanctions lifted