Iranian boxer Mohammad Javad Vafaei-Sani is facing the death penalty for the third time after being found guilty of “corruption on earth” during anti-government protests in 2019.
The 29-year-old athlete was arrested in March 2020 and charged with setting fire to a government building – which he denied.
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It is claimed the boxer was then subjected to horrific “severe physical and psychological torture”. As Report.
Vafaei-Sani’s case is commonly compared to that of 27-year-old wrestler Navid Afkari, who was accused of killing a state security guard during anti-government protests in 2018 and hanged in 2020.
Vafaei-Sani was convicted in December 2021 of “corruption on earth” – considered the most serious charge under Iran’s penal code and punishable by death.
His lawyer, Babak Paknia, said on Christmas that despite the Supreme Court’s reversal of a previous decision, “the majority Opinion A committee of investigating judges (advisers of Branch 3 of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court), in opposition to the Supreme Court judges, have again issued the death sentence for ‘corruption on earth’.
“This decision may be appealed.”
Statistics show that around 250 people are hanged every year in Iran, in addition to this, 100 children are also hanged every year.
The country’s barbaric punishment system includes public hanging from cranes, horrific electric shocks and flogging.
Vafaei-Sani is one of a number of Iranian athletes who have been sentenced to death by the government or killed during protests in recent years.
As reported Iran Wire, Volleyball player Ali Mozaffari, killed during protests in 2022.
A month later, football player Mohammad Ghaemifar was shot by government forces after he was reportedly targeted after being cornered in a street.
and Ehsan Ghasemifar, a 32-year-old bodybuilder, killed during protests in December 2022.
He said he was “surrounded by security forces” while livestreaming on Instagram and that his family was urged to say he died of a “heart attack”. Iran Wire,
Other Iranian athletes have suffered the same fate for decades.
naveed afkari
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In 2020, Iran hanged champion wrestler Navid Afkari on false charges of killing a security guard during a protest.
It is believed that he was tortured and forced to sign a confession.
Her handwritten letters detailed 50 days of beatings and attempted strangulation.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran is about to execute an innocent man,” he said in his last message.
Navid was hanged – and his death sparked outrage around the world, with even then-US president Donald Trump condemning Tehran.
Habib Khabiri
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Habib Khabiri, described as the person closest to American national hero Kobe Bryant, has been hanged by Iran.
He was the captain of the Iran national football team and a hero.
Habib scored a dramatic winning goal against Kuwait in a 1978 World Cup qualifying match.
But at the age of just 29 he was arrested and hanged for being a member of a dissident group.
He was murdered along with 40 others in the infamous Evin Prison.
“Habib was the Iranian Kobe Bryant,” commentator Manook Khodabakhshian told Sports Illustrated in 1998.
“Sometimes when I look at Kobe Bryant, I remember Habib Khabiri. He was only 16 or 17 when he started playing for the national team. He was a very creative player.
“Such a young, such a happy boy.”
Mahshid Razaghi
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Another footballer who played alongside Habib, Mahshid Razzaghi, was a member of the Iranian team that went to the Olympics.
He was arrested for selling anti-government newspapers – and sentenced to one year in prison in 1980.
But the football star was never released.
Mahshid was left to languish in prison until 1988 – when he was hanged along with other political prisoners as part of an infamous massacre by the Death Commission.
His brother Ahmed was hanged a few days later; it is estimated that 30,000 people were killed in the massacre.
Foruzan Abdi
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Another high profile athlete, Foruzan Abdi was the captain of the Iranian women’s national team.
In 1981 he was arrested for supporting a dissident group and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Like Mahshid, he was also never released from jail.
And he was murdered along with thousands of others during the 1988 purges.
Majid Jamali-Fashi
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Iran executes kickboxer Majid Jamali-Fashi after a televised show trial.
He was accused of working for Israeli spies and murdering a nuclear scientist in Tehran.
Pictures of an Israeli passport were shown on television, which was said to be his passport – but it was later revealed to be a passport edited from Wikipedia.
Majeed is alleged to have been tortured to confess to the crimes, and is believed to have been murdered following the leaks to WikiLeaks.
He was hanged.
Houshang Montzeralzohor
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Five years after representing Iran as a wrestler at the Olympics, Houshang Montajeralzohur was executed by firing squad.
He was the national champion in his weight class and competed for his country at the Summer Olympics in Montreal.
Read more at The Scottish Sun
But in 1981 he was arrested along with 29 others.
Houshang was reportedly tortured and then shot to death by a firing squad.
