UN Chief Firmly Condemns Iran's Execution Of Wrestling Champion - Spokesman

UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th September, 2020) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has strongly condemned the execution by Iranian officials of 27-year-old champion wrestler Navid Afkari who was accused of killing a security guard during the 2018 protests, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a press briefing on Monday.

Navid had been in custody since September 2018 before being executed by hanging this past Saturday.

"The Secretary-General has been very clear [on] his feelings against the use of the death penalty," Dujarric said. "He firmly condemns the use of the death penalty in this case, and in every other case that it's been used."

Many prominent politicians and rights activists worldwide had urged the Iranian government not to execute the young athlete. The execution triggered a broad international outcry.

Earlier in the day, a group of experts from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had also condemned the execution.

According to Iranian authorities, Afkari confessed to the murder while in custody. His family later claimed that the confession was forced out of him by torture.

The UN experts said that Afkari complained to the judiciary that the officials had severely beaten him, covered his face with a plastic bag, and poured alcohol into his nose.

"The execution of Navid Afkari was summary and arbitrary, imposed following a process that did not meet even the most basic substantive or procedural fair trial standards, behind a smokescreen of a murder charge," the experts said.

The family of the murdered security agent, Hasan Turkman, reportedly refused to replace the death penalty by restitution for Afkari.

According to OHCHR, Afkari's family was denied the right to last visit prior to execution. They had just arrived at Shiraz to seek pardon from the victim's family when they learned that Afkari's execution had been implemented on September 12.