Iran publicly executed a 19-year-old star athlete and two others in a public hanging on Thursday.
The Islamic Republic of Iran’s judiciary moved forward Thursday with plans to execute 19-year-old champion wrestler Saleh Mohammadi and two others. The U.S. State Department, along with some elite Iranian-American wrestlers, had pleaded with Iran to change its plans.
Mohammadi was put to death for protesting against the Khamenei regime.
"His execution was a blatant political murder, part of the Islamic Republic’s pattern of targeting athletes to crush dissent and terrorize society, as seen with Navid Afkari and others executed despite international outcry," Nima Far, a human rights activist and Iranian combat athlete, told Fox News Digital.
"The IOC [International Olympic Committee] and UWW [United World Wrestling] should have intervened forcefully with public ultimatums, threatening immediate suspension of Iran’s NOC [National Olympic Committee] and federations if the killing proceeded rather than relying on ineffective quiet diplomacy, given their own commitments to protect athletes from politically motivated harm."
In late January, major concern was raised.
"The United States is deeply concerned by reports that 19-year-old wrestling champion Saleh Mohammadi is facing imminent execution. The regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran is massacring young people and destroying Iran’s future. We call on the Iranian regime to halt the execution of Saleh Mohammadi and all those sentenced to death for exercising their fundamental rights. #SalehMohammadi #StopExecutionsInIran #HumanRights #IranProtest," State Department in Farsi wrote.
The champion wrestler and two others were publicly executed for allegedly "being accused of killing two police officers during nationwide protests earlier this year, the judiciary-linked Mizan news agency reported."
The three men allegedly attacked "two police officers with knives and swords during protests on January 8 in the holy city of Qom."
Less than two years ago, the Iranian wrestler won a bronze medal for Iran’s national freestyle wrestling at the Saytiyev International Cup in Krasnoyarsk, Russia in September of 2024.
