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  "path": "/sport/iran-wrestling-champion-saleh-mohammadi-tortured-public-hanging-iran",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-19T20:47:48.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "Fifa forces national teams to employ women coaches to 'accelerate change' in landmark announcement",
    "Premier League star refuses to hand over Afcon medal and cash bonus to team-mate",
    "Athletics star opens up on horrifying drug addiction as he prepares for astonishing comeback",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\nIran carried out the public execution of 19-year-old champion wrestler Saleh Mohammadi on Thursday.\n\nThe teenager was hanged alongside two other men detained during anti-government demonstrations earlier this year.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nMohammadi, a promising freestyle competitor from Qom, was put to death together with Mehdi Ghasemi and Saeed Davodi, according to Iranian state media and human rights organisations.\n\nThe three were arrested following their alleged involvement in nationwide protests that swept across Iran in late December 2025 and January 2026.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTRENDING\n\nStories\n\nVideos\n\nYour Say\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nHuman rights groups have condemned the proceedings as grossly unfair.\n\nThey claimed confessions were extracted through torture and that the men were denied proper legal representation.\n\nIranian authorities convicted Mohammadi of premeditated murder in connection with the death of a police officer from the Faraja Special Unit during clashes in Qom's Nabovvat Square on January 8.\n\nProsecutors alleged the young wrestler participated in an attack involving knives and swords that caused the officer, Mohammad Ghasemi Homapour, to fall from his motorcycle and die.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThe Qom Criminal Court handed down the death sentence in early February under the Islamic principle of qisas, or retribution-in-kind, with Iran's Supreme Court subsequently upholding the ruling.\n\nMohammadi had represented Iran at international level, winning a bronze medal at the Saytiev International Cup in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, in September 2024.\n\nNima Far, a human rights activist and Iranian combat athlete, told Fox News: \"His execution was a blatant political murder, part of the Islamic Republic's pattern of targeting athletes to crush dissent and terrorise society.\"\n\nRights organisations, including Amnesty International and Iran Human Rights, have highlighted severe due process violations throughout the case.\n\n### LATEST SPORT NEWS\n\n\n\n\n  * Fifa forces national teams to employ women coaches to 'accelerate change' in landmark announcement\n  * Premier League star refuses to hand over Afcon medal and cash bonus to team-mate\n  * Athletics star opens up on horrifying drug addiction as he prepares for astonishing comeback\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThey point to the rejection of alibi evidence and witness testimony, alongside the denial of access to independent legal counsel.\n\nAll three defendants reportedly denied the charges against them, yet the court accepted confessions campaigners say were obtained under duress during interrogation.\n\nThe US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency estimates approximately 53,000 people were detained during the regime's crackdown on protesters.\n\nThe US State Department had previously urged Iran to halt the execution, writing on social media in late January: \"The regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran is massacring young people and destroying Iran's future.\"\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nMohammadi's case echoes that of wrestler Navid Afkari, who was executed in 2020 for allegedly killing a police officer during protests two years earlier.\n\nFar called on international sporting bodies to take decisive action.\n\nShe argued the International Olympic Committee and United World Wrestling should have threatened immediate suspension of Iran's federations rather than relying on quiet diplomacy.\n\nFar said: \"Iran must be banned from international competitions until it halts executions of protesters and athletes.\"\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter**",
  "title": "Wrestling champion, 19, 'tortured into confessing crime' and executed in public hanging by Iran"
}