At least six more Iranian athletes face execution as fears grow after mountaineer Mostafavi is hanged

Fears are growing for more Iranian athletes facing execution. Mountaineer Ali-Sina Mostafavi is the latest sportsperson to be put to death. The activist group Human Rights for Sport says two sportspeople have been executed in the past month and at least six more face the same fate.

Mostafavi documented his ascents of some of the world's highest peaks, including Mount Everest. He was arrested in April after the anti-government protests a few months earlier, and he was executed on October 14. Taekwondo athlete Siavash Jamshidi Kheirabadi was killed at the start of October, and mixed martial arts fighter Gholamreza Khani Shakarab was hanged in May.

Human Rights for Sport is a group of former Iranian athletes based in Oslo that has been documenting the growing number of cases. It has warned that at least six more athletes are facing execution after their sentences were upheld by Iran's supreme court.

Those at risk include swimmer Ali Pishevarzadeh and footballer Ehsan Hosseinpour, both arrested during the January protests, and boxer Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, who was arrested in 2020 for taking part in protests a year earlier and saw his request for a retrial rejected last year.

Another MMA fighter, Benyamin Naghdi, equestrian athlete Taraneh Rahimi and climber Maryam Siri have also been condemned to death this year, the group says.

Human Rights for Sport said six athletes have already been executed in cases linked to the January protests or earlier political charges.

Dr Zohreh Abdollahkhani of Human Rights for Sport said the Iranian sporting community is under enormous pressure. For one of those sentenced to death, they managed to raise attention through other organisations and halted his execution, but it was only temporary, and she is very concerned about all of them.

The group believes athletes have been targeted to send a message to the wider community, with the deaths of prominent sportspeople often given widespread coverage in state-run media. Referring to wrestler Navid Afkari Sangari, who was executed in September 2020, Abdollahkhani said he was a role model and very famous in the whole community, and what happened to him was also a warning to the whole population.

Mostafavi's death sentence was upheld by the supreme court at the end of September. He is believed to have been subjected to physical violence during his detention in Kerman before being transferred to solitary confinement. He was accused of being an 'armed agent of the American-Zionist enemy' and was arrested for allegedly opening fire on civilians in Azadi Square in Kerman on March 24 and taking part in January's protests. His family are thought to have been summoned to the prison hours before his execution.

Abdollahkhani said making contact with those facing the death sentence is a challenge, as some members of their families are also being targeted by security services. In one case, a man's sister and brother-in-law have been arrested and the whole family's phone lines are under surveillance, making direct contact simply impossible.

Overall, Human Rights for Sport has found that 217 Iranian athletes were killed by direct gunfire in January, and more than 100 others were detained. Four members of the European parliament also wrote to Fifa before the World Cup concerning Iranian athletes facing execution.