Iranian champion wrestler Navid Afkari executed

Iran's state TV reports that the country's authorities have executed a wrestler allegedly murdering a man after President Donald Trump asked for the 27-year-old condemned man's life to be spared, Report says, citing AP.

State TV quoted the chief justice of Fars province, Kazem Mousavi, as saying on Saturday: "The retaliation sentence against Navid Afkari, the killer of Hassan Turkman, was carried out this morning in Adelabad prison in Shiraz."

His case had drawn the attention of a social media campaign that portrayed him and his brothers as victims targeted to protest against Iran's Shiite theocracy in 2018. Authorities accused Afkari of stabbing a water supply company employee in Shiraz's southern city amid the unrest.

On September 4, US President Donald Trump called on the Iranian authorities not to carry out the sentence.

Latest news