Fears are growing for several Iranian athletes facing the death penalty. Mountain climber Ali-Sina Mostafavi is the latest sports figure to be executed by the regime. Human Rights for Sport, an Oslo-based group of former Iranian athletes, said at least six more sportspeople face the same fate after the supreme court upheld their sentences.
Mostafavi was executed on 14 October. He was arrested in April after anti-government demonstrations and had previously documented his ascents of the world’s highest peaks, including Mount Everest. His death followed the execution of taekwondo athlete Siavash Jamshidi Kheirabadi at the start of October. Mixed martial arts fighter Gholamreza Khani Shakarab was hanged in May.
Swimming competitor Ali Pishevarzadeh and footballer Ehsan Hosseinpour are among those facing imminent execution after being arrested during January protests. Boxer Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, arrested in 2020 for taking part in protests a year earlier, is also on death row. His retrial request was rejected last year. Other death sentences this year include MMA fighter Benyamin Naghdi, equestrian athlete Taraneh Rahimi, and climber Maryam Siri.
Dr Zohreh Abdollahkhani of Human Rights for Sport said the Iranian sporting community is under enormous pressure. She explained that awareness campaigns previously managed to temporarily halt one execution, but she is very concerned about all the detained athletes. The group believes authorities target sports figures to send a warning to the wider public because deaths of prominent athletes often receive wide coverage in state-run media.
Abdollahkhani pointed to the September 2020 execution of wrestler Navid Afkari Sangari as an earlier example of this strategy. She described him as a famous role model whose death served as a warning to the public about what authorities could do to prominent individuals.
Court documents show Mostafavi’s death sentence was upheld by the supreme court at the end of September. He was reportedly subjected to physical violence during detention in Kerman before being transferred to solitary confinement. Authorities accused him of acting as an armed agent and taking part in January protests. His family were summoned to the prison hours before the execution took place.
Abdollahkhani stated that communicating with the condemned individuals is extremely difficult because security services also target their relatives. In one case, a prisoner’s sister and brother-in-law were arrested and the family’s phone lines were placed under surveillance.
Human Rights for Sport recorded that 217 Iranian athletes were killed by direct gunfire in January, while over 100 others were detained. Four members of the European Parliament previously wrote to Fifa regarding the endangered athletes, but Abdollahkhani said they received no response.
A Fifa spokesperson said the football governing body is aware of the concerns raised and thanked those involved for raising awareness of these matters. Abdollahkhani criticized the International Olympic Committee for staff changes that she claimed hindered efforts to raise cases through its human rights structures.
The IOC disputed this account and stated it maintains fully functioning human rights and safeguarding teams. The IOC added that while it is deeply concerned about affected athletes, it lacks the authority as a non-governmental organization to alter the laws or political system of a sovereign country.
