Iranians “are already used to” seeing videos in their country’s official media of detainees confessing to the camera before going on trial. That explains Neda, an Iranian from the diaspora who hides her identity under a made-up name. What’s not so common is that in these photos you recognize someone you’ve been in a relationship with “since you were 10”, as happened with Neda a few days ago. The friend who saw this woman on screen is Eshragh Najafabadi, a former member of Iran’s national mountain bike and mountaineering teams, who appeared in a recording released by the semi-official Tasnim news agency. In it, the 30-year-old athlete admits his involvement in a conspiracy to attack a homemade bomb in his country. In the same video, four other youths associated with mountain sports — three men and one woman — plead guilty to the same crime, IranWire confirms. This Iranian exile website claims that in the city of these five Iranians alone, in southern Shiraz, “more than 30 athletes were kidnapped and arrested by security forces.”
Some of them and other athletes in the country are at risk of being hanged. The most famous is footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani, 26, accused of “enmity with God” and belonging to an armed group that a court in his country attributed to the deaths of three Revolutionary Guard paramilitaries – the army parallel to the ordinance, whose aim is to protect the Islamic Republic and its leaders – the International Federation of Professional Footballers Associations confirmed in a statement last Tuesday. The athlete, who played in the first division of the Iranian championship until the 2017-2018 season, was arrested on November 27 for participating in the demonstrations, limiting himself to chanting some protest slogans, according to his entourage. According to a source quoted by IranWire, Nasr-Azadani was not even present in the area where the three paramilitaries he is accused of crimes were killed. This Iranian newspaper claims that the court-appointed public defender told the footballer’s family that the case against him was only intended to “instill fear”. The young man is one of 39 people who could be executed in Iran, according to the human rights organization Iran Human Rights.
In 2019, ahead of the ongoing protests against the Islamic regime – triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody on the 16th, threats against loved ones [de los detenidos] to coerce video confessions” from detainees, especially in relation to demonstrations such as those that have been taking place in Iran for nearly three months following the death of Amini, who had been arrested three days earlier for improperly wearing the headscarf. Since its inception, 14,000 demonstrators have been arrested according to the United Nations and 18,000 according to Iranian exile organizations. Iran Human Rights estimates the death toll from the crackdown at 458.
“I had already seen many confessions on TV, but the prisoners did not appear blindfolded and handcuffed,” Neda points to the video of the five athletes. Eshragh Najafabadi – accused of leading the alleged terrorist plot – appears in prison uniform; Handcuffs secure your wrists to the armrests of the chair. The left hand appears almost motionless, with the palm facing up and only the thumb moving. “Eshragh injured this hand in an earlier accident, but we now believe it was probably broken during interrogation and torture. We assume that’s why he was tied to the chair,” said his friend, who described the confession video as a “hoax” intended to convict “five innocent people.” According to a source quoted by IranWire, these youths had photos of the demonstrations on their social networks before they were arrested.
Since the protests began, the Iranian diaspora has denounced how the regime of the Islamic Republic tried to prevent artists and athletes from becoming the mouthpieces of the protesters. One of the most repercussive cases was that of mountaineer Elnaz Rekabi, who started without a veil in Seoul (South Korea) on October 16. After returning to Iran, Rekabi blamed his gesture on a mistake amid complaints from human rights groups that the athlete’s family had been threatened.
Neda describes her friend Eshragh as “an introverted boy” who rides his bike everywhere and was a member of the Iranian mountain bike team. “Her brother says that he once rescued some firefighters who were lost in the mountains of Shiraz from the freezing cold and that he looked for them in the early morning,” the woman explains. In another video posted to Twitter by this brother, the cyclist and climber appears to be rescuing a child who had climbed the vertical wall of a mountain.
This athlete was arrested on October 30 in his city at the dentist’s office. After his arrest, police took him to his home, where “they found nothing” of which he could confess, IranWire claims. According to Neda, the young man is being held in the detention center of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Shiraz. The agency Tasnim, which published the video of his confession, is linked to this paramilitary organization.
“Eshragh already has a lawyer, but the authorities have not given him access to his file. His father is not allowed to visit him and he can only talk to him for a short time,” Neda complains.
Esraq Najafabadi
Source: La Neta Neta
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
