DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran, which has a history of broadcasting suspected forced confessions, aired a statement by a wrestler who faces the death penalty. The segment came shortly after President Donald Trump criticized the case in a tweet. The segment and authorities accuse Navid Afkari, 27, of stabbing a water supply company employee amid demonstrations in 2018. Afkari's case has generated the attention of a social media campaign that portrays him and his brothers as victims targeted over participating in protests against Iran’s Shiite theocracy. Afkari had local fame as a wrestler, a popular sport in Iran. His case has revived a demand inside the country that Iran stop carrying out the death penalty.
AP
FILE - In this June 25, 2018 file photo, a group of protesters chant slogans at the main gate of the Old Grand Bazaar, in Tehran, Iran. On Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020, Iran broadcast the televised confession of a wrestler facing the death penalty after a tweet from President Donald Trump criticizing the case, a segment that resembled hundreds of other suspected coerced confessions aired over the last decade in the Islamic Republic. The case of 27-year-old Navid Afkari has drawn the attention of a social media campaign that portrays him and his brothers as victims targeted over participating in protests against Iran's Shiite theocracy in 2018. (Iranian Labor News Agency via AP, File)
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