UPDATE, SEPT 16:
Iran’s Justice Department has told foreign diplomats to stop criticizing the execution of wrestler Navid Afkari.
The department said, “Foreign embassies should not become the mouthpiece for Iranian opposition groups and should at the very least adhere to diplomatic norms.”
The Foreign Ministry summoned Germany’s ambassador in Tehran on Monday over an Embassy tweet condemnihg of the execution.
“It is not acceptable for legal constitutions to be ignored in order to silence dissenting voices,” the Embassy wrote. It added that Afkari’s two brothers, imprisoned for 54 and 27 years, “need our solidarity”.
A German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said there were “considerable doubts about the rule of law in the proceedings”, including Afkari’s claim that he “confessed only under torture”.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry denounced German “interference in the internal affairs” of the Islamic Republic.
Tehran’s complaint failed to deter the European Union’s foreign affairs spokesperson Peter Stano from saying that the EU is opposed to the death penalty “under all circumstances and cases with no exception”: “It is a cruel and inhumane punishment.”
Five independent UN human rights experts said in a statement expressing condolences to Afkari’s family, “It is deeply disturbing that the authorities appear to have used the death penalty against an athlete as a warning to its population in a climate of increasing social unrest.
The statement was signed by Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman; Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard; Special Rapporteur on Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule; Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Nils Melzer; and Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan.
UPDATE, SEPT 13:
One of the last statements from Navid Afkari before his execution early Saturday, in an audio tape smuggled out of prison:
If I’m executed, let everyone know that in the 21st century — with all its human rights mechanisms, international organizations, security councils — an innocent person has been executed while he struggled & fought with all his might.
UPDATE, SEPT 12:
Iranian authorities have executed wrestler Navid Afkari, a participant in mass protests in August 2018.
Afkari was convicted of stabbing a water company security guard to death. The head of the Justice Department in Fars Province, Kazem Mousavi, said that the execution was carried out “after legal procedures were carried out at the insistence of the parents and the family of the victim”.
The award-winning wrestler said he was tortured into making a false confession, and his attorney Hassan Younesi said there was no proof of his guilt.
Younesi said Afkari’s family were refused a visit with him before the execution, as required by law. He asked authorities on Twitter, “Were you in so much hurry to execute the sentence that you also deprived Navid of a last meeting?”
On Tuesday, a global union representing 85,000 athletes called for Iran’s expulsion from world sport if Afkari was put to death.
ORIGINAL ENTRY, AUGUST 31: Iranian authorities have imposed another death sentence on a participant in the country’s mass protests in 2018 and 2019.
A Shiraz court condemned Navid Afkari (pictured), a medal-winning wrestler, with two death sentences over his involvement in marches in August 2018 about economic conditions.
Afkari was arrested with his two brothers and charged with forming a group to act against the regime and killing a security agent.
The protests in 2018 were spurred by a historic fall in the Iranian currency, feeding inflation and adding to unemployment and declining productivity and trade. They spread across the country from Shiraz to the capital Tehran to cities such as Mashhad, Ahwaz, and Kermanshah. Hundreds of people were detained, with Iranian officials claiming that three police personnel and a protester were slain.
Afkari claimed that he was tortured in prison, including a plastic bag over his head and alcohol poured into his nostrils. His brothers Vahid and Habib have been sentenced to 54 and 27 years respectively.
The currency has continued its record-setting slide and now stands at 237,500:1 v. the US dollar, compared to 45,000:1 in early 2018.
Mass nationwide protests have recurred, including in November 2019 after the Government suddenly raised petrol prices by 50% to 200%. More than 300 demonstrators were killed by security forces.
In recent weeks, Iran’s judiciary has announced a series of death sentences on protesters, although the Supreme Court has paused the executions of three activists amid the social media campaigns “Don’t Execute” in Persian and “Stop Executions in Iran” in English.
“More than 300 demonstrators were killed by security forces.”
Even Amnesty’s tally of 304 claims that many of those killed were *BYSTANDERS* who were not demonstrating when killed.
Rastgoo,
Um, whether security forces killed demonstrators or bystanders — it’s unlawful killing.
As the reports summarizes, “The fact that so many people were shot while posing no threat whatsoever shows the sheer ruthlessness of the security forces’ unlawful killing spree.”
S.
I am correcting your claim that the 304 persons that Amnesty allegedly claims were killed were all protesters. They weren’t.
You are also assuming that those bystanders, or even many of the demonstrators/rioters, were shot by the security forces. Amnesty’s researchers have produced no physical evidence of this at all. They did not examine the ballistics evidence that could have shown whether those shot were killed by weapons used by the Iranian armed forces. But Amnesty admits that several members of the security forces were shot by armed rioters in places like Mahshahr.
It is apparent from the George Floyd protests in the U.S, that up to half of those killed were not shot by the police but, rather, by white nationalist vigilantes. Likewise, in Iran, armed opposition groups probably opened fire in many instances.
Iranian authorities have already stated that those civilians accidentally killed by the security forces, or deliberately by armed rioters, are to be regarded as martyrs: https://en.irna.ir/news/83581038/Supreme-Leader-urges-Islamic-mercy-for-fuel-price-rioters
“According to the Supreme Leader, citizens that were caught in crossfire and riots and died without playing any role in instigating them will be regarded as “martyrs” and their families should be covered by the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs. ”
“
Rastgoo,
Amnesty provided documentation of the unlawful killing of 304 demonstrators and bystanders by security forces.
Your comment is irrelevant to that fundamental. So we can pin this.
S.
Amnesty releases another flawed report, this time alleging the mass torture of protesters in Iran: https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1328912020ENGLISH.PDF
No actual physical evidence is provided to back the claims (although artist recreations are shown) and the identities of those allegedly affected is not revealed. There is, therefore, no way of verifying any of the claims made by the organization which admits the following:
“Amnesty International has withheld the names of sources interviewed in order to protect their security. For this reason, this report does not specify the exact time, location or means of communication for the interviews conducted.”
“The names of the victims whose cases were documented by Amnesty International as well as details such as the name of the city where the acts of torture and other ill-treatment documented took place and the exact date when they took place have not been mentioned in the report.”
Previously, Amnesty had alleged that 304 protesters and bystanders in the 2019 riots had been killed but could only provide full names for 232 of these. The Iranian authorities have declared that 230 persons, including some from the security forces, were killed.
Rastgoo,
Thank you for highlighting this valuable report, which is given more weight by your weak attempts to discredit it.
We will highlight this in an EA Feature on Thursday.
S.
Be sure to highlight the lack of any actual verifiable evidence.