Miami Herald (Sunday)

Iran executes man despite global pleas for leniency

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Iranian state TV reported Saturday that authoritie­s had executed a wrestler for allegedly murdering a man, after President Donald Trump asked that the 27year-old’s life be spared.

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

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 other suspected coerced confession­s aired over the last decade in the Islamic Republic.

The Internatio­nal Olympic Committee in a statement said it was shocked and saddened by the news of the wrestler’s execution, and that the committee’s 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.”

Last week, Trump tweeted: “To the leaders of Iran, I would greatly appreciate if you would spare this young man’s life, and not execute him. Thank you.”

Last week, Iran’s semioffici­al Tasnim news agency dismissed Trump’s tweet, saying that American sanctions have hurt Iranian hospitals amid the pandemic.

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