First anniversary of wrestler Navid Afkaris execution: Siblings Saeed and Elham arrested as Irans Islamic regime continues to harass the wrestlers…

On September 12, 2020, just over a year ago, the Islamic Republic of Iran displayed unparalleled agility in executing Greco-Roman wrestler Navid Afkari, merely because he had dared to protest against the conservative Islamic states political and economic corruption.

Now, on the first anniversary of the execution of Navid Afkari, the repressive Iranian regime has trained its guns on his family members even as they were preparing to honour his memory. Saeed, Navids brother, wasassaultedby security forces when he arrived at Shiraz to pay tributes to his brother in his native village of Sangar, Fars province.

Saeed was subsequently taken into custody by the police on trumped-up charges, several news reports said. He was accompanied by his sister, Elham, who was also subjected to assault and arrested by the police.

The action against Saeed came days after Saeed had posted a critical tweet accusing the Iranian regime of coercing his family for not holding a ceremony in remembrance of his slain brother.

As we approach the anniversary of the death of my brother, security institutions have been pressuring our family and acquaintances to prevent us (from holding a ceremony). We have been enduring your savage oppression for three years, and while we still mourn, we will stand against you, Saeed had defiantly tweeted.

The ceremony was scheduled to take place on September 13, 2021. But action against Afkaris family suggests Iran remains incredibly wary of the domestic churning that the ceremony could touch off and mobilise people around Afkaris killing and the first anniversary of his execution. Last year, outrage swept across the world, bringing the Islamic Republic of Iran under the spotlight for using oppression as a tool to exact obedience after Afkari was sentenced to death over the alleged murder of a security guard during anti-government protests in 2018.

It was then widely reported that the Iranian regime inflicted horrifying torture on Mr Afkari and hustled him into confessing crimes he did not commit, in a bid to justify his execution and undercut the groundswell of opposition building around his death sentence.

On Saturday last week, a new video of Navid Afkari confessing to the murder of a water company security guard, for which he was subsequently executed, was released by Fars News, a channel affiliated to Irans Revolutionary Guards. The aim was to deflect the criticism that Afkari was a victim of state oppression. But, the Afkari family, their lawyer and human rights defenders, as well as Afkari himself during his trial said that the confession was taken under duress.

Afkari was sentenced to death for allegedly murdering a security guard during the anti-government protest in Iran in 2018. The verdict sparked a massive furore across the world, with widespread protests by human rights organisations, sports federations, and athletes around the world to revoke his death sentence.

The then United States President Donald Trump too had implored Iran to overturn the wrestlers death sentence and grant him clemency. To the leaders of Iran, I would greatly appreciate if you would spare this young mans life, and not execute him, Trump hadtweeteddays before Afkari was executed.

According to a recently publishedreportin the Jerusalem Post, the Intelligence agents from Iran were worried about the growing popularity of the wrestler and therefore, they had no other option but to execute the wrestler, lest he sparks a revolution that would endanger Iranians conservative regime.

Along with Afkari, his two brothers, Habib and Vahid, were also arrested. They have been incarcerated in the Adel Abad prison of Shiraz and held in solitary confinement since Navids execution.

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First anniversary of wrestler Navid Afkaris execution: Siblings Saeed and Elham arrested as Irans Islamic regime continues to harass the wrestlers...