Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) affiliated media Tasnim news on Monday reported that Iranian footballer Amir Reza Nasr Azadani had been charged by Isfahan court “of being a member of an illegal group with the intention of disrupting the security of the country to five years in prison, for the charge of assembly and collusion leading to anti-security crimes to five years, and for the charge of partaking in enmity against God to 16 years.”
Azadani was arrested after being accused of involvement in the death of three security personnel and for partaking in anti-government protests in the country last year, and will serve the longest sentence out of all the charges - 16 years in prison.
The footballer was initially reported to have been sentenced to death in December, causing international condemnation.
FIFPro, the international federation of professional footballers, in December said that they were “shocked and sickened by reports that professional footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani faces execution in Iran after campaigning for women’s rights and basic freedom in his country.”
Iranian authorities on New Year’s Eve detained a number of footballers in Tehran for attending a party where alcohol was reportedly consumed.
Iranian football stars like Ali Karimi, and to a lesser extent Ali Daei, have become the voice of the protesters in the country calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic in the country.
Ali Karimi, who lives outside Iran, has nearly 15 million followers on Instagram and has turned social media into a platform to support the people and call for more protests across Iran. “Kudos to the people for resisting against the child-killing regime and the oppressive forces armed to the teeth for 100 days with empty hands,” Karimi tweeted in late December.
The sentencing of Azadani and a number of other detainees comes as Iran is being slammed by the international community for the latest round of executions in connection with protests in the country.
Iran on Saturday executed Karami and Hosseini, claiming that they were behind the killing of a member of the IRGC’s Basij paramilitary force.
The executions of Karami and Hosseini follow that of Majidreza Rahnavard, who was publicly hanged on December 12, also for allegedly killing two members of the Basij.
Both Washington and the EU condemned the executions, with the latter saying they were “appalled” by the Iranian regime’s executions.
Iran on December 8 carried out the first official protest-linked execution, hanging 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari after being similarly accused of wounding a member of the Basij.
Protests spread across the Islamic republic in the aftermath of the death of young Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini at the hands of the morality police on September 16, sparking a violent crackdown by Iranian security forces, particularly the IRGC and its paramilitary Basij.
At least 519 protesters, including 70 children, have been killed and over 19,000 have been arrested since the protests began almost four months ago, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) on Sunday.
