Iran said that it had executed a 27-year-old wrestler accused of murder after he took part in anti-government protests two years ago, a case that set off a campaign by international sports groups to demand clemency for the athlete.
The wrestler, Navid Afkari, was executed on Saturday morning at a prison in the southern city of Shiraz, his lawyers confirmed.
Mr Afkari was accused of fatally stabbing a water-utility worker amid unrest in Shiraz, a centre of the anti-government protests that swept the country in 2018.
The charges against him had been met with widespread skepticism in Iran and abroad, with many government critics saying he was being used as an example to silence dissent.
According to the state news agency Ilna, Navid Afkari was executed in Adel-Abad prison in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz. Source: NWRI via AAP
In an audiotape smuggled from prison, Mr Afkari said he had been tortured until he falsely confessed to the crime.
Mr Afkari’s lawyers said on Saturday that Iranian officials had carried out the execution without giving their client a final visit with his family, which they said was dictated by law.
“How much of a rush were you in to carry out the sentence that you denied Navid one last meeting?” one of the lawyers, Hossein Younesi, posted on Twitter.
Mr Afkari’s legal team had been preparing a last-ditch motion for judicial review of the case.
People take part in a protest in front of the Iranian embassy against the execution of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari. Source: DPA via AAP
The International Olympic Committee said it was shocked and saddened by the execution.
“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 of Iran, United World Wrestling and the National Iranian Wrestling Federation did not achieve our goal,” the committee said in a statement, referring to Iranian and global sports groups.
The head of the local judiciary, Seyed Kazem Mousavi, told official Iranian news media that the execution was “carried out after due judicial process and at the insistence of the family of the murdered victim".
Mr Afkari was not well-known before his arrest, even in Iran, although he had won some acclaim around Shiraz. The popularity of wrestling in Iran partly explains his importance to the government, his supporters say.
Iran executed 251 people last year, more than any country except China, according to Amnesty International.
In one of his last recordings from prison, Mr Afkari said that Iranian authorities did not want to hear his appeals.
