![\"Iran,](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/navid-afkari-23092020-1.jpg\" "\\"navid-afkari-23092020-1\\"")
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The execution of Navid Afkari, an Iranian wrestling champion arrested during the major Iran protests in 2018, shocked the international community. In an article for United Press International (UPI), former Member of the European Parliament, Mr. Struan Stevenson, described Navid\u2019s execution<\/a>, despite international outcries against it, as sign of the regime\u2019s desperation and stupidity. He also blasted the European Union\u2019s appeasement policy toward the Iranian regime for not condemning Navid\u2019s death sentence and putting pressure on the Iranian regime to halt it in advance. \u201cThe belligerent behavior of the Iranian regime proves that attempts at diplomatic negotiation or appeasement are pointless,\u201d Mr. Stevenson underlined in his article<\/a> on UPI.<\/p>\n Iran’s theocratic regime has added stupidity to its long list of deficiencies. Guilty of repression, corruption, terrorism, genocide and gross incompetence, the mullahs have nevertheless succeeded in sinking even lower in the eyes of the international community by executing, on Sept. 12 the 27-year-old champion wrestler Navid Afkari.<\/p>\n Afkari was a political prisoner. He was arrested in Shiraz, Iran, on false charges of murdering a city employee during nationwide protests that took place in 2018. Shiraz, the city of poets, is Iran’s fifth-largest city and was the epicenter of protests when tens of thousands took to the streets in December 2017 and January 2018. Predictably, the mullahs ordered their Gestapo, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps<\/a>, and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security to crack down on the protesters, shooting dead hundreds and wounding thousands.<\/p>\n Afkari was a hero in Shiraz and renowned throughout Iran for his wrestling skills. He was on the verge of representing Iran internationally. The mullahs have brutally ended his career and his life. There were worldwide calls for clemency from leading sports personalities, politicians, the International Olympic Committee, Amnesty International and even the U.S. president. But ignoring all pleas, the Iranian authorities tortured Navid for weeks into making a false confession. In a smuggled letter, he described how for 50 days he was beaten with sticks and batons on his arms, buttocks and back. He had a plastic bag placed over his head until he almost suffocated. The torturers also poured alcohol up his nose.<\/p>\n #NavidAfkari<\/a> sent many messages saying he was tortured into confessing 2 crimes he did not commit. — IRAN HRM (@IranHrm) September 12, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe full text of this article is below:<\/h3>\n
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He said, "I\u2019m asking freedom-lovers, regardless of their beliefs, to be my voice…"#\u0646\u0648\u06cc\u062f_\u0627\u0641\u06a9\u0627\u0631\u06cc_\u0631\u0627_\u06a9\u0634\u062a\u0646\u062f<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/IuQwbsNC1n<\/a><\/p>\n