In apparent retaliation for the execution of the reportedly innocent Iranian champion wrestler Navid Afkari, assailants on Sunday fire bombed the entrance of the revolutionary court in the city of Shiraz that sentenced him to death.
Video footage of the reported explosion was posted on social media on Sunday.
تفجير أمام المحكمة الإيرانية التي أصدرت حكم الإعدام على المصارع "نويد أفكاري"#العربية pic.twitter.com/IzppotLCX1
— ا لـ ـعـ ـر بـ ـيـ ـة (@AlArabiya) September 27, 2020
The Iranian regime-controlled news outlet IRNA confirmed the attack on Sunday. “According to a report received by IRNA on Monday, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal of Shiraz announced the firing of incendiary materials in front of the Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal of Shiraz. The complex is in good health and no damage has been done to the courthouse,” IRNA reported.
The news outlet added that an “investigation was launched to identify the person or persons” involved in the case, and that “It is worth mentioning that after the incident, the images that were prepared for the consumption of dissident media were spread in cyberspace, and identifying and dealing with the agents who prepared and published these images is also on the agenda of the police.”
Various Twitter accounts showed the front of a building ablaze. Commentators wrote that defiant youths or locals set the entrance on fire to protest Afkari’s execution. The Jerusalem Post could not independently confirm the video footage nor the people behind the attack of the court entrance.
Iran’s regime executed Afkari a little over two weeks ago for his role in demonstrating against Iranian regime political and economic corruption in 2018.
The regime contends that Afkari killed a security official who was identifying protesters at the peaceful demonstrations. There is no evidence linking the champion wrestler to the killing of the guard, according to his lawyer and human rights groups. Afkari said he was brutally tortured to confess to a killing he did not commit.
The Islamic Republic of Iran's execution of Afkari has sparked a global campaign to ban Iran’s regime from the Tokyo 2021 Olympics.