Iranian soccer player Amir Nasr Azadani was sentenced Monday to 26 years in prison in Iran after being accused by the revolutionary court of murdering three members of the security forces during protests in the country.
Three other Iranian citizens were also accused of participating in the same crime in the city of Isfahan, in mid-November last year, with two being sentenced to death and the third to two years in prison.
The court case against Azadani drew heavy criticism around the world, especially from football associations, with some foreign media reporting that he had been sentenced to death in December.
According to Iranian news agencies, in news released today, the soccer player was sentenced to 16 years in prison for complicity in the murder of three militiamen (basijis), to which must be added five years in prison for participating in a protest and two years for they belong, according to the court of Iran, to illegal groups that “disturb the public order”.
Azadani was a player for various soccer clubs in Iran between 2016 and 2019, specifically for Tractor Sazi, a team led by Spanish coach Paco Jémez.
In the same trial, Iranians Saleh Mirhashemi, Majid Kazemi Sheikh Shabani and Saeed Yaqoubi were sentenced to death after being accused of murdering militiamen in the city of Isfahan.
The three death sentences bring to 11 the total number of people sentenced to death in Iran for the widespread protests against the Tehran regime.
Iran has faced public outrage since September 16, the day Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman of Kurdish origin, died after being detained by police for not wearing the Islamic headscarf imposed on women in the country by the authorities.
The protests demand the end of the Islamic Republic founded in 1979.
The government has violently repressed the mobilizations carried out mainly by young people and women.
So far, at least 2,000 people have been accused by the Iranian courts of various crimes for their participation in the protests, with four of those sentenced to death by the revolutionary courts having been executed.
Last weekend, citizens Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini were executed after being found guilty of the murder of a Basiji.
The executions, by hanging, have provoked strong international criticism.
The European Union expressed “dismay” at the executions and called on Tehran to “immediately annul” the death sentences handed down in the context of the protest demonstrations.
Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International refer to the trials as “shams”, “unfair” trials or “retaliation”.
According to the Oslo-based non-governmental organization Iran Human Rights, more than 500 people were killed in the clashes and 20,000 were arrested.
Source: TSF
