DOHA: Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari has been executed after being convicted of stabbing to death a security guard, the state media reported.
Afkari, 27, was accused of stabbing the water supply company employee in the southern city of Shiraz. Iran broadcast the wrestler’s televised confession last week.
Afkari was executed “this morning after legal procedures were carried out at the insistence of the parents and the family of the victim”, Kazem Mousavi, head of the justice department in southern Fars province, said.
But Afkari’s family and activists said he was tortured into making a false confession. His lawyer said there was no proof of his guilt. Iran’s judiciary, however, have denied the torture claims.
Construction workers
Afkari and his brothers were employed as construction workers in Shiraz, 680 km south of Tehran. The provincial court in Shiraz also sentenced Afkari’s brothers Vahid Afkari and Habib Afkari to 54 and 27 years in prison, respectively, over the killing.
Afkari’s attorney accused authorities of denying his client a family visit before the execution, as required by law. “Were you in so much hurry to execute the sentence that you also deprived Navid of a last meeting?” Hassan Younesi said on Twitter.
There was no immediate reaction by Iranian officials to the attorney’s accusation.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reported from Tehran that there were two different versions about the murder.
“:Outside Iran we’re hearing that Navid Afkari was arrested due to these protests that took place in 2018 and alleged killing of a security officer. Inside Iran, it’s very different. The judiciary released a statement a while ago – they said Navid Afkari was arrested after the murder of a 52-year-old water worker accompanying the Shiraz water company, and that murder took place on 23 July, 2018,” an Al Jazeera reporter said.