Executed Wrestler's Brother Threatened With Death In Prison
Saeed Afkari, the brother of the executed Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari, says their jailed brother Vahid has been threatened with death in prison in Shiraz.
Saeed Afkari, the brother of the executed Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari, says their jailed brother Vahid has been threatened with death in prison in Shiraz.
Saeed Afkari said on social media that the warden of Adel-Abad Prison, in southwestern province of Fars, wants to reinstall a surveillance camera in Vahid’s solitary confinement cell for his protection.
Saeed said the warden told him that he has information that “some people” want to take advantage of the lack of a camera inside his cell and kill him. He expressed grave concern for the life of his brother.
Earlier reports said that Vahid had broken the security camera inside his cell a few times, and will not allow the authorities to set up new cameras.
Vahid Afkari was sentenced to 54 years and 6 months in prison and 74 lashes and is held in solitary confinement.
Amnesty International said in June 2021 that Vahid and Habib, another brother who has since been freed, were being subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in Adel-Abad prison in Shiraz, and were denied access to adequate healthcare, fresh air, telephone calls and face to face family visits.
Navid Afkari was arrested along with his brothers Habib and Vahid during protests in Iran in 2018 and was executed despite international campaigns to save his life.
He initially received a death sentence for an “act of war against God” for his participation in protests, the authorities later charged him and his brothers with the murder of a government employee.
According to the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights in September 2021, Shahin Naseri, a prisoner who testified that Navid Afkari was tortured to confess to the killing, died in custody in Greater Tehran penitentiary “in suspicious circumstances”.
