The regime commutes the death sentence of the player arrested in the context of the protests over the death of Mahsa Amini to 26 years in prison
Amir Reza Nasr Azadani avoided hanging on Monday in the middle of a day marked by the decision to apply the death penalty to five new young people arrested during the protests Iran has been experiencing for four months. The 26-year-old footballer, whose case has received worldwide attention, will be sentenced to as many years in prison after being found guilty of three charges, including “complicity in enmity against God”.
Azadani, a former player of local teams such as Rah-Ahan, Tractor Sazi and Gol-e Rayhan, was arrested in November for his alleged connection to the deaths of three security officers in Isfahan, in the center of the country, during the match of a of the protest demonstrations for the death of Mahsa Amini by the moral police. The footballer can now appeal to the Supreme Court to try to reduce the sentence.
Three of the last five death row inmates are related to the same case as Azadani. The other two are Mohammad Ghobadlou, 22, and Mohammad Boroughani, 19, who are awaiting execution in Karaj’s Rajai Shahr prison on the outskirts of Tehran. A rally took place at the gates of this prison in which dozens of relatives, friends and anti-government activists demanded a suspension of the death sentence, something unusual in the Islamic Republic because of the strict security measures in these places. Ghobadlou is accused of hitting several members of the security forces with his car and killing one of them. In Boroughani’s case, he was found guilty of stabbing an officer to death.
Iran’s judiciary has so far carried out four executions following this outburst of protests, the last two over the weekend. The United Nations denounced that the hangings of Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini took place after “unfair trials based on coerced confessions”. This is the same complaint from other international organizations such as Amnesty International (AI), which advocates trials with guarantees for the accused.
At least 519 protesters and 68 security personnel have been killed in the unrest so far, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
Azadani’s case has made headlines in the international press and won the solidarity of the football world. Faced with the media frenzy caused by his situation, Isfahan Chief Judge Asadollah Jafary stated from the outset that the court will act “without paying attention to the media campaigns”. National ball legends such as Ali Karimi or Ali Daei are critical voices of the regime and the authorities are trying to soften the impact of their messages of support for the demonstrators.
Source: La Verdad
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