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Champion Wrestler Hanged After Torture to Confess to Murder
Iran Executes Champion Wrestler Who Was Tortured Into Confessing to Murder
Navid Afkari, convicted of fatally stabbing a security guard during anti-government protests in Shiraz, Iran, was supported by the likes
of FIFA amid calls for Tehran to spare his life
Daily Mirror UK, 12 SEP 2020
Iran has executed a champion wrestler who claimed he was tortured into making a televised false confession in a case that sparked an international outcry.
Navid Afkari, 27, was hanged at Adelabad Prison in Shiraz after he was convicted of stabbing to death a security guard during anti-government protests in August 2018, state media said on Saturday.
Afkari was executed "this morning after legal procedures were carried out at the insistence of the parents and the family of the victim," the media quoted the head of the justice department in the southern Fars province as saying.
Afkari, who was handed two death sentences, had said he was tortured into making a false confession, according to his family and activists, and his attorney says there is no proof of his guilt. His supporters described him as a "political prisoner".
Iran's judiciary has denied the torture claims.
Navid Afkari, 27, was accused of killing a security guard during anti-government protests
Afkari's brothers, Vahid and Habib, were sentenced to 54 and 27 years in prison in the same case, according to human rights activists in Iran.
Amnesty International had warned on Friday that Afkari was at "imminent risk of being executed in secret", adding that Afkari made a brief phone call to his family on September 6 to say he was being held at Adelabad Prison, which has "high security and harsh conditions".
It had called on UN human rights bodies and EU member states to "urgently intervene" to help "save Navid Afkari from execution".
A global union representing 85,000 athletes called on Tuesday for Iran's expulsion from world sport if it executed Afkari. The IOC has faced pressure to kick Iran out of the Olympics, and FIFA was among the international sport bodies urging Tehran to spare the wrestler's life.
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