Iran Human Rights Calls For International Condemnation of Navid Afkari’s Execution

Iran Human Rights (IHR); September 12, 2020: Navid Afkari, one of the defendants in the August 2018 protests case who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for being the “lead in murder” and to death for moharebeh (enmity against God) by the Revolutionary Court, was executed this morning. He vehemently denied the charges and spoke out against his forced confessions being used against him as evidence, until the day of his execution.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said: "Navid Afkari was sentenced to death after a grossly unfair trial and based on confessions extracted under torture. His execution is considered a crime under both international law and the laws of the Islamic Republic. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, head of the judiciary Ebrahim Raeisi, and anyone involved in this crime, including the State Broadcasting for airing Navid’s confessions must be held accountable.” He added: ”We call for strong international condemnations of Navid Afkari's execution. Without strong international reactions, many young Iranian protesters' lives will be in danger.”

Navid Afkari was only 27 years old. He was single, born in 1993 and a plasterer who also wrestled professionally and according to his family, had won several medals in national competitions.

Navid had been sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for the murder of a Hassan Turkman, a security guard at a government building who according to court documents had been sent to identify protesters in August 2018, and his brother Vahid has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for being the secondary in the murder by Branch One, Criminal Court One of Fars Province. The two brothers had told the court that all their confessions were false and obtained under torture.

Iran Human Rights previously published some of the case files documenting the torture and had called on the international community to help stop his execution. All documents were made available to the international community.

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