Iran executed another decorated fighter this week, despite international outcry and condemnation by the US State Department, according to reports.
Mehdi Ali Hosseini was sentenced to death in a prison in the city of Dezful on Monday, Al Arabiya said, citing a local media outlet. A judicial official also confirmed the execution to the state-run ISNA News Agency.
A senior US State Department official spoke out earlier this month against Iran’s plan to execute Hosseini after Tehran rulers publicly hanged wrestling champion Navid Afkari in September on widely criticized and forged charges.
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“The Iranian regime must be held responsible for its human rights abuses and for its attempt to seize power through execution,” said Ellie Cohanim, the State Department’s special representative to monitor and combat anti-Semitism.
Hosseini, who is from Andimeshk, in the province of Khuzestan, was arrested in 2015 and accused of premeditated murder, allegedly committed during a group fight. It is not clear, however, whether the Iranian regime forced Hosseini to confess to a crime he did not commit.
Iran’s opaque judicial and penal system has repeatedly tortured Afkari to admit a murder he did not commit, according to human rights organizations and Western governments. Clerical rulers hanged Afkari for protesting in 2018 against the economic and political corruption of the regime controlled by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Reports of Hosseini’s execution this week were met with more criticism from activist groups.
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“The clerical regime cannot survive even a day without execution, torture and repression in an attempt to create a kingdom of terror to prevent the escalation of popular revolt, as it is engulfed by incurable internal and external crises,” said the Council National Resistance Office.
“The Iranian Resistance reiterates its call to the United Nations Secretary-General, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Human Rights Council and all human rights defenders, as well as the European Union and its member states, to condemn the hideous execution of Mehdi Ali Hosseini and take immediate steps to save the lives of prisoners on death row, “he added.
Benjamin Weinthal of Fox News contributed to this report.