Tehran: Amidst the ongoing conflict with Israel and the US, Iran, on Thursday, publicly executed a 19-year-old champion wrestler who had represented the country in international competitions.
Saleh Mohammadi, was executed by hanging on Thursday, along with two other men arrested during the brutal crackdown on anti-regime protests in January.
The others have been identified as Mehdi Ghasemi and Saeed Davoudi.
The executions have drawn international condemnation and renewed fears that Iran is targeting athletes to crush dissent, as reported by The Sunday Guardian.
Mohammadi and the others were hanged in the city of Qom after being convicted of the capital crime of “moharebeh” – waging war against God. Iranian state media said they were found guilty of killing two police officers “with knives and swords” during the January protests.
Human rights groups said that Mohammadi, a wrestling champion from Qom, has turned 19 just last week.
He has been described as a rising star in Iranian wrestling. Nima Far, an Iranian human rights activist and combat athlete, told Fox News that Mohammadi’s execution was “a blatant political murder, part of the Islamic Republic’s pattern of targeting athletes to crush dissent and terrorize society”.
There had been particular concern over Mohammadi’s fate, as he was denied “adequate defence and forced to make ‘confessions’…in fast-tracked proceedings that bore no resemblance to a meaningful trial”, Amnesty International said.
According to Iranian state media, Mohammadi, Ghasemi and Davoudi were convicted of involvement in killing two police officers during the January protests. They were also accused of carrying out “operational actions” in favor of Israel and the United States.
The proceedings were not fair, human rights groups say. Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said after the executions that the three “had been sentenced to death following an unfair trial, based on confessions obtained under torture”.
Iran legal affairs monitor Dadban added that they were “deprived of effective access to independent counsel and the right to defence”.
Thursday’s execution was a haunting repetition of the 2020 execution of champion wrestler Navid Afkari, who was convicted of killing an Iranian security guard during a 2018 protest, Nima Far said. Afkari’s execution drew international outcry, with athletes and human rights advocates calling for sanctions against Iran. Far said Iran has a clear “pattern of targeting athletes to crush dissent”.
It is still not known for certain how many protesters have been killed in Iran following the uprising. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has recorded more than 7,000 killings during the crackdown on protests that began in late December.
The vast majority were protesters, though the toll could be far higher. Tehran has acknowledged that more than 3,000 people died during the unrest, including security forces and innocent by-standers, and attributed the violence to “terrorist acts”.
Thursday’s hangings came a day after Iran executed Kouroush Keyvani, a dual Iranian-Swedish national, on charges of spying for Israel. That was the first public execution announced since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, killing the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
It has been claimed that Iran hanged at least 1,500 people in 2025.The Islamic republic executed 13 people on charges related to the 2025 June conflict with Israel and 12 people on charges related to 2022-2023 nationwide protests.
