We Strongly Condemn Navid Afkari’s Execution!

Statement of three Secular and Democratic Republican Currents

We Strongly Condemn Navid Afkari’s Execution!

Despite a wave of opposition in recent days to the death penalty for him and his request for its abolition and review of his case, Navid Afkari was executed on the morning of Saturday, September 12, 2020. Execution of such sentences while the accused is not able to defend himself and the verdicts are pre-determined is nothing but premeditated murder. The news of the execution of his death sentence astonished everyone with all atrocity and cruelty of the regime and provoked a wave of disgust and anger against the Islamic Republic (IR).

The regime's hastiness of the immediate execution of Navid, as many athletes around the world, head of the International Olympic Committee and human rights organizations called for his death sentence to be overturned, his lawyers tried to appeal the sentence and some sought to obtain consent of the decedent’s family, like thousands of death sentences handed down in the past, demonstrated the regime’s disregard for minimum human standards as well as panic over the wave of protests against the brutal death sentences handed down to protesters. Navid's killers were so quick to execute him that they even barred him from meeting his family for the last time. His family was also informed after the execution.

Navid's assassination and the IR's disregard for all requests for the abolition of his death sentence reflect the decision of the head of the IR to expedite such a criminal act. This time, too, the IR tried to defuse pressure to overturn the verdict and review the case by resorting to the programmatic methods of showing the video of the confessions and staging the alleged murder. But this act of the regime also exposed its usual and scandalous methods. Also, despite the fact that the judiciary had issued two death sentences against Navid, it reduced the responsibility for executing the sentence to “Ghesas - Retribution” and diverted the atmosphere from paying attention to the death sentence related to "Moharebeh – war against God or his prophet’s decrees".

Navid Afkari was a victim of the usual frame-ups of the intelligence-security organs and the judiciary of the IR. According to his lawyer, in Navid's case, there is not the slightest evidence to prove his guilt, except for the confessions obtained under torture and dictated by the interrogators. The repressive apparatus of the regime has forced Afkari brothers to confess against each other and accept false accusations under torture. The only crime of Navid and his brothers is participating in the August 2018 protests. In fact, Navid’s death sentence and severe sentences of his brothers, like other death sentences against protesters of December 2017 and November 2019 protests, are signs of the regime's fear of a resurgence of such protests, with the aim of creating a climate of terror to prevent it in the future. Is. The IR has once again shown that it is not willing to interact and compromise with the people at any level. It has stubbornly confronted, distorted and denied their demands.

We, the three secular and democratic Republican currents, condemn the criminal execution of Navid Afkari. Together with the international community and the freedom-loving forces of the country, we express our disgust with this horrible act and express our sympathy with his family and the sports community of the country. The international community is obliged to put pressure on the IR in accordance with international law to fulfill its obligations within the framework of civil and political rights conventions. We call on civil society and human rights activists and organizations to continue to protest against the brutal death sentences handed down to protesters, not to allow the IR to commit more killings and frame –up in prisons in fear of the uprising of the people and to challenge its domination in the streets. We must join hands, unite and consciously struggle for non-violent transition from the IR to democracy. As long as this system survives, execution, violence, torture and imprisonment will not stop. The end of executions in Iran is tied to the end of the illegitimate life of the IR.

Political-Executive Boards of:

United Republicans of Iran

The Left Party of Iran (People’s Fadaian)

Union for Secular Republic and Human Rights in Iran (USRHR)

September 13, 2020