Iran said it had executed a wrestler on Saturday for murdering a man during a wave of anti-regime protests in 2018, drawing widespread condemnation and eliciting shock from the International Olympic Committee.
Navid Afkari, 27, was executed at a prison in the southern city of Shiraz, Fars province prosecutor general Kazem Mousavi told state television.
Mr Afkari had been found guilty of “voluntary homicide” for stabbing to death Hossein Torkman, a water department employee, on August 2, 2018, the judiciary said.
Shiraz and several other urban centres across Iran had been the scene that day of anti-regime protests and demonstrations over economic and social hardship.
The IOC said it was “shocked” by the execution and that it was “deeply upsetting” that pleas by athletes around the world and international bodies had failed to halt it. “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Navid Afkari,” the IOC said.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced a “vicious” execution. “We condemn it in the strongest terms. It is an outrageous assault on human dignity, even by the despicable standards of this regime. The voices of the Iranian people will not be silenced,” Mr Pompeo tweeted.
Amnesty International said the “secret execution” was a “horrifying travesty of justice that needs immediate international action”.
Read the article by Amir Havasi in The Australian.