IOC 'shocked' by execution of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari

Afkari's case had drawn the attention of a social media campaign that portrayed him and his brothers as victims targeted over participating in protests against Iran's Shiite theocracy in 2018.

Tehran: The International Olympic Committee on Sunday condemned the execution of a young Iranian wrestler -- named Navid Afkari -- for allegedly murdering a man despite international outcry to stop the controversial execution.

Iran’s state TV on Sunday claimed that the country's authorities have executed the 27-year-old wrestler.

Kazem Mousavi's statement.

State TV quoted the chief justice of Fars province, Kazem Mousavi as saying on Saturday: "The retaliation sentence against Navid Afkari, the killer of Hassan Turkman, was carried out this morning in Adelabad prison in Shiraz."

Speaking about the execution, IOC said, it was a "very sad news".

"The IOC is shocked by this announcement today," it added.

IOC president Thomas Bach had made "direct personal appeals to the Supreme Leader and to the President of Iran this week and asked for mercy for Navid Afkari, while respecting the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran".

"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.

"Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Navid Afkari."

Afkari's case had drawn the attention of a social media campaign that portrayed him and his brothers as victims targeted over participating in protests against Iran's Shiite theocracy in 2018.

Authorities accused Afkari of stabbing a water supply company employee in the southern city of Shiraz amid the unrest.

Iran broadcast the wrestler's televised confession last week. The segment resembled hundreds of other suspected coerced confessions aired over the last decade in the Islamic Republic.

The case revived a demand inside the country for Iran to stop carrying out the death penalty. Even imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, herself nearly a month into a hunger strike over conditions at Tehran's Evin prison amid the coronavirus pandemic, passed the word that she supported Afkari.

Earlier, the U.S. president Donald tweeted out his own concern about Afkari's case.

"To the leaders of Iran, I would greatly appreciate if you would spare this young man's life, and not execute him," Trump wrote last week.

• 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 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  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

  ">

  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

"Thank you!" 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.