Executions and convictions: Banning Iran from sport

After the execution of the Iranian karateka Mohammad Mehdi Karami last weekend and the sentence of the Iranian soccer player Amir Nasr-Asadani to 26 years in prison, politicians in the governing coalition in Berlin are pushing for the Iranian sports associations to be excluded from international competitions.

The member of the Bundestag Andreas Larem (SPD), who has taken on a sponsorship for Nasr-Asadani, said in an interview with the FAZ that he maintained the demand for an exclusion.

Christopher Becker

sports editor.

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Former U-21 international Nasr-Asadani, whose career was cut short by a serious injury two years ago, had shown solidarity with the protests for civil rights and freedom and against the Islamic Republic of Iran and was arrested in November.

A court in Isfahan sentenced him to a total of 26 years in prison, of which ten years are suspended.

Saleh Mirhashemi, Majid Kasemi and Saeid Yaghoubi, who were charged with him, were sentenced to death.

The regime charges them with killing three security officers.

According to the website of the Iranian judicial authorities, the conviction can be appealed.

"We will not let up in our efforts, we are pushing for the release of all prisoners," said Larem.

The fact that Nasr-Asadani was not sentenced to death shows that international attention is at work.

Larem announced that he would write to both Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) and the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Berlin on the matter.

After the executions last Saturday, including that of Karamis, the ambassadors of the Islamic Republic were summoned to Berlin and other European capitals.

The Islamic Republic's judiciary is retaliating for the anti-regime protest that has been going on since the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in vice squad custody.

Sports journalist Behnaz Mirmotaharian wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that her husband, Ehsan Pirbanasch, also a sports journalist, had been sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Pirbanasch was arrested in October.