Iranian witness to torture of wrestler Navid Afkari killed

• Author: BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
• Published date: 23 September 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The US government media outlet Radio Farda reported on the death of Shahin Naseri and said it obtained his latest audio message from inside the Tehran prison. Naseri said he was an "eyewitness to medieval torture" of Navid Afkari.

He announced his "solidarity" with Navid's brothers, Vahid and Habib, who are incarcerated, "because of the baseless hatred and baseless accusations against the citizens of Iran and the violation of the most basic citizenship rights" by the Islamic Republic.

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Naseri said he was "disgusted" and "demands the revocation of his citizenship of this regime."

He accused regime officials of "grand thefts" and called on the Iranian people to "support" the protests of citizens in Khuzestan, Sistan and Kurdistan and "stand up for them."

The Iranian-American human rights expert and activist Lawdan Bazargan told The Jerusalem Post "The sudden death of Shahin Naseri, a witness to the torture of Navid Afkari, Iranians beloved champion who was unjustly executed last year, was unexpected but not surprising. The Islamic Republic of Iran is a mafia regime that kills and eliminates its opponents an people who do not fall in line with its oppressive measures, to stay in power."

She added that 'The shaky pillars of IRI, like any other dictatorships is established on an unjust court system and a brutal prison apparatus. Naseri's death even if accidental, is the result of an unpopular regime that does anything for its survival. The history shows though that oppressive regimes are not sustainable and sooner or later this regime will collapse too. I wish the price of freedom and democracy was not this high."

Iranian-Norwegian columnist Mina Bai posted a photo of Naseri on Twitter.

Iran Human Rights Monitor wrote on its website that the dead prisoner Naseri's brother said "His friends told us that he was killed in solitary confinement. But no official has contacted us yet."

The human rights group added that a source close to Naseri's family said: "A few days ago, coinciding with the first anniversary of the execution of Navid Afkari he (Shahin) was transferred from the hall where he was held at the Greater Tehran Penitentiary (GTP) to an unknown location. We thought he had been transferred to a security agency because he had been repeatedly threatened by security officials to remain silent about the Afkari brothers'...