Middle East

Iran hangs mountaineer who documented his Everest ascents, Ali-Sina Mostafavi executed after supreme court upholds protest sentence

Oslo campaigners count six athletes executed and at least six more on death row

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Mountaineer Ali-Sina Mostafavi was executed earlier this month for taking part in protests against the Iranian government. Photograph: Ali-Sina Mostafavi/Iran Human Rights Mountaineer Ali-Sina Mostafavi was executed earlier this month for taking part in protests against the Iranian government. Photograph: Ali-Sina Mostafavi/Iran Human Rights theguardian.com
Boxer Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani – arrested for protesting in 2019 – is among those facing imminent execution, warns Human Rights for Sport. Photograph: Iran Human Rights Boxer Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani – arrested for protesting in 2019 – is among those facing imminent execution, warns Human Rights for Sport. Photograph: Iran Human Rights theguardian.com
Wrestler Navid Afkari Sangari was executed in September 2020. Photograph: UN Watch Wrestler Navid Afkari Sangari was executed in September 2020. Photograph: UN Watch theguardian.com
Mountaineer Ali-Sina Mostafavi before his detention. Photograph: Ali Sina Mostafavi/Facebook Mountaineer Ali-Sina Mostafavi before his detention. Photograph: Ali Sina Mostafavi/Facebook theguardian.com

Iran hanged the mountaineer Ali-Sina Mostafavi on October 14, weeks after the supreme court upheld his death sentence over his part in this year's protests. Mostafavi, who documented his ascents of peaks including Mount Everest, had been arrested in April. He is the latest in a series of executions of Iranian athletes.

Siavash Jamshidi Kheirabadi, a taekwondo athlete, was killed at the start of October. The mixed martial artist Gholamreza Khani Shakarab was hanged in May. Human Rights for Sport, a group of former Iranian athletes based in Oslo, says six athletes have already been executed in cases linked to the January protests or earlier political charges, and that at least six more face death after the supreme court upheld their sentences, the Guardian reports. They include the swimmer Ali Pishevarzadeh and the footballer Ehsan Hosseinpour, both arrested during the January protests, and the boxer Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, arrested in 2020 over the 2019 protests, whose request for a retrial was rejected last year. The MMA fighter Benyamin Naghdi, the equestrian Taraneh Rahimi and the climber Maryam Siri have also been condemned this year.

Mostafavi was accused of opening fire on civilians in Azadi Square in Kerman on March 24, alongside taking part in the January protests, and was accused of being an "armed agent of the American-Zionist enemy." He is believed to have been subjected to physical violence during detention in Kerman before being transferred to solitary confinement. The wrestler Navid Afkari Sangari, executed in September 2020 after international appeals failed, set the precedent for the current wave.

Dr. Zohreh Abdollahkhani of Human Rights for Sport says the group has managed to halt one execution by raising attention and awareness through other organizations. The athletes executed or condemned this year span climbing, swimming, football, boxing, taekwondo, mixed martial arts and equestrian sport. Mostafavi's family is believed to have been summoned to the prison hours before he was hanged.