PARIS – Iran has arrested the sister of a wrestler who was executed in 2020, accusing her of colluding with a foreign-based Persian-language television channel, Tasnim news agency said yesterday.
Elham Afkari, accused of collaborating with London-based Iran International television, was also alleged to have had a large amount of foreign currency on her when she was detained as she tried to flee the country, Tasnim reported.
Iran International said on Twitter that it “categorically denies” the Islamic republic’s claim that she had worked for or collaborated with it.
It said that in addition to Afkari, the security forces had also detained her husband and three-year-old daughter, which was confirmed by another brother, Saeed.
The Afkaris’ brother Navid was a 27-year-old wrestling champion who was executed at a prison in the southern city of Shiraz in September 2020.
The judiciary said he had been found guilty of “voluntary homicide” for stabbing to death a government employee in August 2018.
Shiraz and other urban centres had been the scene of anti-government protests at the time.
But Navid Afkari had complained of being tortured into confessing, with methods that included beating and having alcohol squirted up his nose – an account supported by eyewitness evidence published by Amnesty International.
His two other brothers, Habib and Vahid, have both spent time behind bars, according to activists.
In its report, Tasnim news agency alleged Elham Afkari had intended to show the “negative side” of Iran, incite young men and women to take part in “riots”, and create an “atmosphere of fear” among the population.
It said the intelligence ministry had been monitoring her for years, claiming she had “ongoing relations with counter-revolutionary elements”.
The report also alleged that she was “one of the main organisers of the recent riots”, using the Iranian authorities’ term for protests that have rocked Iran for nearly eight weeks since the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
According to Tasnim, Afkari had been planning “to travel to a neighbouring country, meet with a representative of one of the hostile countries, and then take refuge in another country.”
But Saeed Afkari slammed the arrest of his sister, her husband and daughter.
“Elham and her husband, as well as Liana, her three-year-old daughter, were arrested in Shiraz,” he wrote on Twitter.
“The Islamic republic has arrested our child after having killed Navid and holding my brother Vahid in solitary for more than two years!
“How miserable and despicable you are! Won’t you die from shame when you look at that child’s eyes in the detention centre?” – AFP, November 11, 2022
