Iran publicly executes champion wrestler for protesting Khamenei regime

Iran executed 19-year-old champion wrestler Saleh Mohammadi for protesting the Khamenei regime.

According to Iranian American human rights activists and dissidents, reports said that Mohammadi was killed in a public hanging Thursday in an attempt to snuff out protesters, Fox News reported.

His reported hanging, along with the reported hanging of the two others, were in response to the protests that occurred in January.

Nima Far, a human rights activist and Iranian combat athlete who is an expert on elite Iranian wrestling, told Fox News, "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."

"The [International Olympic Committee] and [United World Wrestling] should have intervened forcefully with public ultimatums, threatening immediate suspension of Iran’s [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," Far added.

Both organizations released statements after Fox News requested comment on Mohammadi's death sentence.

Far called on the wrestling authorities to take action, saying, "Iran must be banned from international competitions until it halts executions of protesters and athletes, releases those jailed in sham trials, and ends retaliation against competitors who speak out or defect."

In late January, the official X account for the State Department in Farsi wrote, "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."

Iran International reported that Iran’s regime hanged Mohammadi and two additional Iranian men, Mehdi Ghasemi and Saeed Davoudi, "after being accused of killing two police officers during nationwide protests earlier this year," according to the judiciary-linked Mizan news agency.

Mohammadi, Mehdi Ghasemi, and Saeed Davoudi allegedly attacked "two police officers with knives and swords during protests on January 8 in the holy city of Qom."

The Iranian regime claimed that the three men acted on behalf of Israel and the U.S. Iran International noted this is "a frequent claim used by the Islamic Republic against protesters and dissidents."

In September 2024, Mohammadi won a bronze medal for Iran’s national freestyle wrestling at the Saytiyev International Cup in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.