Iran airs televised confession of wrestler after Trump tweet

Iran has broadcast televised confession of a wrestler facing death penalty after a tweet from President Donald Trump criticizing case, a segment that resembled hundreds of or suspected coerced confessions aired over last decade in Islamic Republic.

case of 27-year-old Navid Afkari has drawn attention of a social media campaign that portrays him and his brors as victims targeted over participating in protests against Iran's Shiite ocracy in 2018. television segment and authorities accuse Afkari of stabbing a water supply company employee in sourn city of Shiraz amid unrest.

Afkari's case has drawn international attention and revived a demand inside country that Iran, one of world's top executioners, stop carrying out death penalty. Even imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh , herself nearly a month into a hunger strike over conditions at Tehran's Evin prison amid coronavirus pandemic, has passed word that she supports Afkari.

Afkari and his brors were employed as construction workers in Shiraz, a city some 680 kilometers (420 miles) south of capital, Tehran. All three took part in demonstrations in 2018 that began in anger over Iran's cratering ecomy and spiraled into direct calls for overthrow Iran's ocracy. Such unrest has continued sporadically in Iran in time since, with authorities arresting thousands of people.

Afkari had local fame as a wrestler, a popular sport in Iran. A provincial court in Shiraz sentenced Afkari to death and his brors Vahid Afkari and Habib Afkari to 54 and 27 years in prison, respectively, over slaying.

Afkari's case has drawn attention of an online campaign that's included a video statement from Dana White, president of mixed martial arts competition called Ultimate Fighting Championship.

“He went to a peaceful protest in Iran and he's going to be executed for that,” White said in a video Friday. “He's one of us. He could be any of my fighters.”

White said he spoke to Trump, who had earlier tweeted out his own concern about Afkari's case.

“To leaders of Iran, I would greatly appreciate if you would spare this young man’s life, and t execute him,” Trump wrote Friday. “Thank you!”

Trump has imposed crushing sanctions on Iran after unilaterally withdrawing United States from nuclear deal that Tehran struck with world powers. That decision led to Iran breaking all limits of deal, as well as a series of attacks across Mideast that America has blamed on Tehran.

Later Saturday night, Iran responded to Trump's tweet with a nearly 11-minute state TV pack on Afkari. It included weeping parents of slain water company employee, Hassan Torkaman. pack also showed foot of Afkari on back of a motorbike, saying he had stabbed Torkaman in back, without explaining why he allegedly carried out assault.

state TV segment showed blurred police documents and described killing as a “personal dispute,” without elaborating. It said Afkari's cellphone had been in area. It showed surveillance foot of him walking down a street, talking on his phone.

foot resembled what one report has described as at-least 355 coerced confessions aired by Iranian state television over last decade . Those supporting Afkari also have accused police of torturing a confession out of him after finding surveillance foot.

That comes after a United Nations special rapporteur in a recent report wrote about a “widespread pattern of officials using torture to extract false confessions" from those protesting Iran's government.

“Three separate detainees from cities of Tehran, Tabriz and Ahvaz all made similar allegations that interrogators physically assaulted m, including by hand, with batons and with electric shocks, and that interrogators tried to force m to confess that entities outside Islamic Republic of Iran had incited protests,” special rapporteur Javaid Rehman wrote.

That report ted Iran's government told him “Iranian constitution and penal code forbids and criminalizes torture.” Iran's mission to United Nations did t respond to a request for comment over Afkari's case.

speed at which Iran broadcast Afkari’s televised confession may signal it intends to execute him. Trump earlier this year tweeted about three or men due to be executed who later won a retrial . That has yet to happen in Afkari’s case, even as it has renewed a hashtag advocacy campaign in Farsi telling Iran (hashtag)dotexecute.

However, Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news ncy dismissed Trump's tweet in a feature story Friday, saying that American sanctions have hurt Iranian hospitals amid pandemic.

“Trump is worried about life of a murderer while he puts many Iranian patients’ lives in danger by imposing severe sanctions," ncy said.

(Im Credit: AP)