Navid Afkari is a fairly famous Greco-Roman wrestler.
But he became famous all over the world not even thanks to his sports achievements, but because the 27-year-old athlete was executed on September 12, 2020 in Iran, despite the efforts of the public around the world to save him.
Afkari was sentenced two times at once: for participating in the protests of 2018 and for allegedly killing a security officer.
Why "allegedly" - more on that below.
A petition to save the life of Navidu Afkari was spread on the Internet, the head of the UFC Dana White, President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach and even US President Donald Trump asked the Iranian authorities to save Afkari.
Let's just see how humanly and even humiliatingly famous people of world sports asked for the salvation of Afkari.
“He went to a peaceful protest in Iran - and he was sentenced to death.
This caught my attention.
First, he is one of us.
He can become one of our fighters.
The only thing I thought about was to call Donald Trump.
He said: "Let's see, let me talk to my administration - and then it will become clear if something can be done to save his life."
I personally would like to say that I humbly and respectfully ask the Iranian authorities to cancel the sentence and spare his life. "
Donald Trump used all the behind-the-scenes levers and wrote a post on Twitter on September 4: “I heard that Iran is going to execute the great and popular star of the struggle - 27-year-old Navid Afkari.
I would very much appreciate your keeping this young man alive!
Thank you!"
The whole world asks Iran to spare the young sports star.
Navid Afkari was arrested along with two brothers (they were given 54 and 27 years, respectively - and yes, this is not a typo) after the protests in Shiraz in January 2018.
It was later announced to the public that Afkari was accused of the murder of Hasan Turkman, a security officer at the Shiraz water company (most likely, he belonged to the Basij IRGC).
And this story turned out to be more than strange.
I carefully studied all the details of the Afkari case that could be found in the Iranian media.
The first thing that immediately catches your eye in this whole case is that there is not a single video recording of this murder.
I'll explain why this seems incredible.
Iran is a totalitarian state stuffed with video surveillance cameras on every square measure of space (I lived and worked in Iran, and there were cameras in absolutely every office, elevator, in front of the front doors of any house, on staircases, even in the steepest megamall of Tehran, hidden cameras in In food courts, under the leadership of the security services, they vigilantly monitored the "observance of the hijab", and if suddenly the headscarf fell from the head, within a minute a guard with a walkie-talkie would appear in front of you and order to "observe the hijab").
My only hope during my life in Tehran was that at least there was no camera in my bathroom and toilet.
It was foolish to count on more.
The Iranian special services knew about the upcoming protests in January 2018 (in December 2017, right the day before, I flew from Tehran to Moscow. And I was asked to stay in Moscow in January, not to come).
So, in large cities there are protest actions that naturally fall on all surveillance cameras.
But the murder of Turkman is allegedly not on them.
Investigators, as evidence of Afkari's guilt, are showing the public alleged billing data, according to which the athlete was in the area of the murder at the time of the murder.
Was he there alone?
During protests?
Iranian state TV is reconstructing events with an actor: here, they say, on this street, at this point at about this time, there were brothers.
The footage is shown: an actor depicting Afkari walks along the street where the murdered Turkman was found - and passes as if under a "surveillance camera".
But such a recording does not exist in reality, otherwise it would certainly be shown to the whole world.
Trump tweets in support of Afkari on September 4, which infuriates the Iranian justice system and those in power.
When I read Trump's tweet, I thought: Trump is not a bad guy, but they will definitely hang Afkari now.
Just out of spite.
On September 11 at 23:30, Navid Afkari calls his relatives, his voice is rather depressing.
He says that there was a doctor in the prison and a commission that removed the beatings and injuries, they took testimony from him against the workers of the Shiraz prison who participated in the beatings, and promised to transfer him to the Tehran prison tomorrow, Saturday.
Saturday is the first working day in Iran.
Early on Saturday morning, that is, a few hours after the night call home, Navid Afkari was hanged in Adel-Abad prison (Shiraz).
He was buried in the evening, in the dark, without showing his body to his relatives.
That against the background of the lawyer's statements that the testimony in prison was knocked out under torture is more than logical.
And the execution itself is like covering up the tracks.
So that the case about what is happening in Iranian prisons was hushed up.
Shiraz's judiciary has published a paper that bears Afkari's signature confirming that he himself chose the bell before his execution, and not the last date with his family.
“See?
He himself wanted it, - as it were, the Iranian judges convince us.
- There is a signature! "
The signature before the rope is thrown around your neck is a convincing argument, of course, we believe.
“We are deeply depressed.
This is very sad news.
Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Navid Afkari, ”responded the International Olympic Committee.
Tehran was probably satisfied with the impression made on the whole world.
But why, you ask, why it was impossible, at least for reasons of diplomacy, political pragmatism, out of a desire to show the "good face of Islam", which I was told about in an Iranian prison, to take and cancel the death sentence to a world-famous young talented man, whose the guilt of the murder is actually very dubious and based on testimony knocked out in prison?
Okay, Trump is like a red rag to a bull for them.
But there is also the international sports community.
Millions of people around the world who have signed a petition asking for the abolition of the death sentence.
IOC President Thomas Bach personally wrote a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei with assurances of respect for Iranian sovereignty and with a request to show humanity - to pardon Afkari.
Moreover, the head of the Iranian judicial system is Ibrahim Raisi, quite young by Iranian standards, the owner of a black turban and the likely successor of Ayatollah Khamenei as supreme leader.
Behind Raisi is a dark trail of thousands of death sentences passed in 1988 to Iranian intelligentsia and critics of the regime, several thousand death sentences documented and signed.
Is it possible that in 2020 a person claiming to be the highest spiritual post in a religious state is not able to show mercy, the greatness of the human spirit, to show the whole world that Iran is not as terrible as you used to think about it in your damned West - here, they say are we capable of humanity?
The point, I believe, is not at all about the murder of a water utility worker.
The question of who killed him remains open.
Afkari on camera in front of a dozen prison guards "confessed" that he stuck a knife in his back, just driving a motorcycle.
And it seems that a completely logical question does not arise: a famous person who measures his strength on the carpet, suddenly decided to stab a person while driving by?
It may be difficult to find out who actually killed the employee of the system, and by hanging everything on a famous athlete, the authorities tried to thereby discredit the protest movement itself.
Afkari was chosen as a symbol of youth, strength, rage, rebelled against old age and senseless cruelty.
And therefore the system had to destroy him - indicatively, to intimidate the rest.
He was sentenced to two whole death sentences, and the second was not for murder, but for “sowing discord on the earth” (moharebe is the Koranic formula, which is deciphered as “war against God”).
There is no mercy for the war against God, only does God himself know about it, if he exists?
After the execution, audio files from the courtroom, where the closed trial over Afkari was going on, got into the network.
They became the property of history exclusively thanks to the Iranian intra-clan political struggle, for only a person working in the system could keep such a record.
When I hear Afkari's voice, full of horror and despair, arguing with the judge, repeating: “I am innocent!
I didn't kill him!
Please, look at the CCTV cameras, everything should be there!
You will see that it was not me, I did not kill him! "
- I'm crying.
Also in October 2019, at the Islamic Revolutionary Court, I asked to be tested on a lie detector and to present at least some evidence of my guilt.
And I heard what Afkari heard.
“Shut up and sit down,” the judge interrupts.
- Your guilt is proven.
- But how can I be silent?
I have to defend myself!
Otherwise, people will never know the truth, they will think wrong about me.
- You have no protection, sit down.
In the letter, he writes: "I have complaints about my elected attorney (a lawyer who was provided by the state. -
Yu
.
Yu.
), I think that he is in cahoots with the prosecutor and the authorities."
In another audio file, you can hear him say that for three months in prison he was interrogated and tortured by an investigator, whose name he does not know, because he was always wearing a mask, glasses and a hat.
“And it is possible,” he looks around the courtroom, “this spy is sitting here now, but I cannot recognize him.”
In my prison, too, everyone was wearing masks, even the guards, they hid their faces, hid their names.
And the masks on their faces were indirect evidence of the coming horror: you are naked and defenseless, you have no right to defend yourself, and they, doing their "justice", remain anonymous.
As executioners in the Middle Ages ascended the scaffold with an ax and a mask on their face: the job is not dusty, but it is better not to shine with your face.
Hasan Younesi, Afkari's lawyer, cites evidence that Navid was beaten in prison with a piece of iron pipe to confess.
The last words of Navid Afkari, which we hear on the audio file from the court: “I am innocent, I am approaching the death penalty, and if they shut me up here, they will execute me, and no one will understand what happened here.
We heard your voice.
The whole world heard you, rest in peace, Navid Afkari.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.