Brother Of Executed Iranian Wrestler Freed From Solitary Confinement

One of the brothers of the executed Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari has been released from prison but another brother, Vahid, is still in solitary confinement.

The family said in a tweet on Saturday that Habib Afkari was freed after months of solitary confinement.

Habib had been sentenced to 27 years and 3 months in prison and 74 lashes and was being kept in windowless solitary confinement cells since Navid’s execution in September 2020.

Vahid was sentenced to 54 years and 6 months in prison and 74 lashes and is still in solitary confinement.

Amnesty International said in June 2021 that Vahid and Habib were being subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in Adelabad prison in Shiraz, and were denied access to adequate healthcare, fresh air, telephone calls and face to face family visits.

Navid Afkari was arrested along with his brothers Habib and Vahid during protests in Iran in 2018 and was executed despite international campaigns to save his life.

He initially received a death sentence for an “act of war against God” for his participation in protests, the authorities later charged him and his brothers with the murder of a government employee.

According to the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights in September 2021, Shahin Naseri, a prisoner who testified that Navid Afkari was tortured to confess to killing a water company security guard in 2018, died in custody in Greater Tehran penitentiary “in suspicious circumstances”.