Iran executed a 19-year-old champion wrestler in a public hanging on Thursday along with two other people who were arrested during the brutal crackdown on anti-regime protesters in January.
Saleh Mohammadi, a rising star from Qom, was allegedly tortured to confess to the capital crime of waging war against God, with the teen executed without a fair trial, according to human rights groups, the New York Post reports.
“His execution was a blatant political murder, part of the Islamic Republic’s pattern of targeting athletes to crush dissent and terrorise society,” Nima Far, a human-rights activist and Iranian combat athlete, told Fox News.
Mohammadi, along with fellow protesters Mehdi Ghasemi and Saeed Davoudi, were accused of killing two police officers “with knives and swords” during the January protests, according to Iranian state media.
Despite appeals from the US, the protesters were found guilty and executed by Tehran.
Amnesty International slammed the executions, alleging that the men were denied “adequate defence and forced to make ‘confessions.’”
The humanitarian group said the trio were pushed through “fast-tracked proceedings that bore no resemblance to a meaningful trial.”
Far said Thursday’s execution was a haunting repetition of the 2020 execution of champion wrestler Navid Afkari, who was convicted of killing an Iranian security guard during a 2018 protest.
Far called on the International Olympic Committee and United World Wrestling organisations to take action against Iran over its brutality against athletes.
“Iran must be banned from international competitions until it halts executions of protesters and athletes, releases those jailed in sham trials, and ends retaliation against competitors who speak out or defect,” Far said.
Fears are high that Iran will roll out more executions following mass arrests during the January 8 and 9 protests, which saw Tehran’s security forces kill more than 7,000 demonstrators, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
This article originally appeared in the New York Post and has been reproduced with permission.
