Amir Nasr-Azadani, an Iranian footballer, has been arrested by the country’s police and is facing possible execution.
According to multiple online reports, Iran’s judicial system is planning to hang him for a crime it calls “moharebeh” – loosely translated in English to “waging war against God.” The crime carries a death sentence.
Nasr-Azadani has been accused of being a member of an “armed group” that was involved in the death of three security officers during protests in the city of Esfahan in central Iran, said the city’s chief justice Asadullah Jafari, according to state news agency IRNA on Sunday.
FIFPRO, the global soccer players’ union, has released a statement criticizing his arrest and calling for his release.
“We stand in solidarity with Amir and call for the immediate removal of his punishment,” FIFPRO said in a statement posted on Twitter on Monday.
According to IranWire, the footballer’s family was threatened by security forces, who warned them not to “disclose the news of his arrest” or Nasr-Azadani would face the “most severe punishment possible.” The family was unable to choose a lawyer and was informed of the death sentence some time in early December.
IranWire sources claimed that “Nasr-Azadani had been present in some nationwide protests, but he was never present in the area where the Colonel was killed. His presence in the protests was short and limited to chanting slogans for a few hours.”
According to Al Jazeera, senior officials in Iran’s judiciary have denied that any sentence has been passed in this case.
