At least twenty people are now in the hands of the Iranian judicial system and face the death penalty on charges of crimes including "enmity against God" and "corruption on Earth." The list includes well-known Iranian league footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani, accused of armed rebellion against the Islamic Republic, Mizan, the news agency of the Iranian judiciary, reported. This is a substantial leap in the crackdown after the first two executions linked to the protests that have rocked Iran since September.
The court links the 26-year-old soccer player to the murder of a police colonel and two Basijis paramilitaries in the city of Isfahan, in the center of the country. People close to Nasr-Azadani say he participated in the protests, but was not at the scene of the killings. Under Iranian justice, he will still be able to appeal the sentence, but legal experts have denounced the irregularities of these trials in which the defendants cannot choose their lawyers; all are imposed by the judicial system. They are also forced to confess to crimes they have not committed and to sign guilty pleas without even reading the documents.
The Nasr-Azadi sentence is the latest of the many episodes in which athletes, especially soccer players, have been involved in these protests. From the beginning, two of the most important figures in the sport, Ali Karimi and Ali Dai, publicly supported them. In response, the authorities launched a campaign against him, especially Karimi, which includes damage to his property.
Subsequently, the controversy surrounding the Iranian soccer team was added, which ended up becoming the bone of contention between the sector that supports the regime and the opponents, who accused the athletes of having betrayed the young people in the street after meeting with President Ibrahim Raisi.
However, the members of the team sent a clear message by refusing to sing the Iranian anthem in the first match of the World Cup in Qatar. Persian-language media broadcasting from abroad have denounced that many footballers are under great pressure from the authorities, and others have been jailed.
No sport is exempt from repression. Majid Reza Rahnavard, the last young man to be executed on December 12, was a professional weightlifter. And days ago a video published by the Tasnim news agency, linked to the Revolutionary Guard, published a video in which he accused five athletes and artists of being part of a terrorist group that sought to carry out bomb attacks in the city of Shiraz. It is claimed that in Shiraz alone, at least 30 athletes are being held.
The speed with which the Nizam, the system, is executing the youth has fueled dozens of campaigns led both from within Iran and abroad. Yesterday, 235 activists issued a statement calling for the annulment of these sentences, which have even been criticized by some clerics, who claim that they go against Islamic law. "The government's execution and murder of Mohsen Shekhari and Majid Reza Rahnavard is just one of the system's tactics to silence people fed up with the Islamic Republic's repressive government," the statement said.
For weeks now, young people in universities have been warning the authorities that executions are the red line that the system should not cross. In the past, especially after 2009, the system has resorted to public hangings to terrorize the population and silence protests. This form of execution had disappeared from the streets in recent years, especially under former President Hasan Rohani. “We will avenge the blood of the innocent”, has been heard frequently in these protests.
So far, the courts have confirmed that eleven people have been sentenced to death, but activist groups have increased that number to 21. The opposition news website IranWire, which closely follows the abuses of the system, goes further and ensures that it has confirmed 28 cases. Some activists have denounced that many families prefer not to make the sentences public because the court and the lawyers appointed by them promise them that, if they remain silent, the inmates have a better chance of being saved.
On the contrary, many of those who protest in the streets assure that the best way to change the sentences is through pressure. The lawyer of one of the detainees, Mahan Sedarat Marani, assures that the judge has withdrawn the death sentence and that it is under review by the Supreme Court. Sedarat Marani had been convicted on charges of "enmity with God" for crimes which included causing bodily harm to a person with a knife and causing damage to private property.
