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Elite wrestlers and bodybuilders are being targeted for death in Iran as they condemn the atrocities of the nation’s regime.
As protests intensified across Iran earlier this month, Olympic wrestler Alireza Nejati posted a message to his more than 78,000 Instagram followers that resulted in his violent arrest, torture and imprisonment two days later, The Post has learned.
“I wish everyone a beautiful weekend full of success and good vibes,” the 27-year-old Greco-Roman wrestling champion posted to an Instagram Story on Jan. 7. “This is the end.”
While the message may seem innocuous, to the embattled regime of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini, it has dangerous undertones — representing “a political signal” to protestors to step up their demonstrations against the government — according to Iranian dissidents.
“On its face, the statement is completely benign, and that’s precisely the point,” said Lawdan Bazargan, director of Alliance Against the Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA), a nonprofit made up of former Iranian political prisoners and their families.
“In today’s Iran, any language that hints at an ‘end,’ closure, or transition can be read as revolutionary because the regime is operating in a state of extreme paranoia.”
That paranoia has resulted in a slew of arrests, detention and even execution of numerous sports figures by regime authorities, according to Iran International, an independent Persian-language news service based in London.
Wrestlers and bodybuilders are among the most popular sports heroes in the country, often with tens of thousands of followers on social media — a threat to the authority of the ruling mullahs, Bazargan said.
Nima Far, a human rights activist, called on international sports bodies, such as the International Olympic Committee, to condemn the arrests and executions that are “turning Iran’s gyms, stadiums, and wrestling mats into hunting grounds for a dictatorship terrified of its own champions,” far said in an X post.
The IOC did not return a request for comment Wednesday.
Since protests broke out in the country over runaway inflation at the end of December, between 6,000 and up to 36,000 protestors have been killed by security forces, according to Iranian dissidents and human rights groups. The number of dead has been difficult to report since the regime cut off Internet and other communications in the country.
On Jan. 9, the same day that Nejati was arrested, security forces killed Shahab Fallahpour, a 19-year-old wrestler, during street protests in the southwestern city of Andimeshk, according to Iran International.
The news service quoted sources who said that he was targeted by a sniper from a rooftop. Fallahpour’s remains were buried three days later in the early hours of January 12 at about 4 a.m. There was no funeral service and only his parents attended “under the supervision of government forces,” the report stated.
Another rising wrestling star, Yashar Soltanirad, 26, was gunned down during protests in Tehran on Jan. 9, according to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights. The group also reported that Majid Jalilian, a 39-year-old CrossFit athlete and father of a young child, was severely beaten by security forces and shot dead in Tehran on the same day.
Saleh Mohammadi, a 19-year-old rising wrestling star from Qom, was arrested by security forces on Jan. 15 and now faces execution, according to Iran International and social media posts.
On Wednesday, Babak Shadgan, a physician who heads up United World Wrestling’s (UWW) medical commission, called on Iran to release Nejati, according to Iran International. The group is the international governing body for amateur wrestling. He told The Post that his post reflects “my personal views as a sports physician,” and not an official view of the UWW.
“In less than 10 days, the Iranian regime shot dead more than 30 athletes across the country,” Saradar Pashaei, a former coach of Iran’s Greco-Roman wrestling team and himself a world champion wrestler, told The Post.
“The youngest was just 15 years old. The victims included young athletes, national champions, coaches, and international referees … Every single one of them was killed by gunfire.”
Nejati, who won three bronze medals and one gold at international wrestling competitions over the last few years, was well known as a protestor to Iranian security forces.
In a recent social media post, he said, “Like other athletes, I could drop my head and follow my sport. But I just couldn’t keep quiet. In my mind, I had a war with all those who committed oppression and made the right unjust, and I couldn’t keep silent.”
In 2020, Iran executed champion wrestler Navid Afkari after he was charged with murdering a security guard during protests against the Iranian regime in 2018. Afkari was killed in spite of entreaties to the Iranian government to pardon the athlete from President Trump and the IOC.
“These executions and detentions are not about law or discipline,” Bazargan told The Post. They are about intimidation, sending a message that no one, not even national heroes, is beyond punishment if they defy the Islamic Republic.”
English (US)