Iran last Thursday continued its execution spree of elite athletes with the killing of champion boxer and prominent sports coach Ali Mutairi.
The UN condemned the execution of Mutairi in Sheiban Prison, located in Khuzestan Province. Mutairi, 30, endured severe torture, which led to his false confession that he had killed two Basij militia members in 2018, activists and family members said.
“We strongly condemn the series of executions, at least 28, since mid-December, including people from minority groups,” a UN spokeswoman told The Jerusalem Post on Friday. “We urge the authorities to halt the imminent execution of Javid Dehghan; to review his and other death-penalty cases in line with human-rights law. We continue to engage with the authorities in Iran on the issues of executions and the death penalty.”
Rob Koehler, director-general of Global Athlete, an international advocacy group for Olympic athletes, told the Post: “The International Olympic Committee must act now. Their silence has left them complicit. Their lack of action clearly indicates they favor stakeholders over athlete rights.”
“The tragic recent execution of boxer Ali Mutairi is the third athlete in just four months that has been murdered by the Iranian government,” he said. “The IOC must immediately suspend the Iran National Olympic Committee. They can no longer neglect their duty of care; athletes’ lives are at stake.”
The Post sent a press query to the IOC.
“Ali Motairi, a terrorist member of the ISIS group, attacked the Basij base,” resulting in the deaths of two Basij members, the Khuzestan Justice Department was quoted as saying by Islamic Republic News Agency, which reported the news in Persian.
Local sources did not confirm the regime’s allegations of Mutairi’s membership in ISIS, according to Iran International, a UK-based Persian television station.
Journalist Hussain Abdul-Hussain tweeted: “Iran regime executed opposition activist Ali Mutairi. Don’t expect the UN Human Rights Council to fly an investigation commission to Iran.”
According to human-rights activists, Mutairi was “physically and mentally tortured in the detention center of an intelligence agency, and after being transferred to Sheiban Prison, he was severely harassed in solitary confinement by prison officials,” Iran International reported in Persian.
Last September, human-rights organizations and Western governments said Iran’s regime brutally tortured champion wrestler Navid Afkari to frame him on a charge of killing a Basij security guard who was tracking protesters during demonstrations against the regime in 2018. The regime hanged Afkari for his peaceful protest against regime corruption, according to Iranian human-rights experts and the US government.
Then-presidential candidate Joe Biden tweeted: “Iran’s cruel execution of Navid Afkari is a travesty. No country should arrest, torture, or execute peaceful protestors or activists.”
In January, the clerical regime executed a second champion wrestler, Mehdi Ali Hosseini.