Amir in Iran risks the death penalty: football is square. What’s up

The Amir case begins to take shape, and thanks to the football drumbeat it can be useful for shedding light on what is happening in Iran. Amir Nasr Azadani is a footballer, or at least he has been for several years. A decent career at home as a defender, approaching the Iranian Under 16 national team in his youth, in 2019 the rupture of a knee ligament held him back and today at the age of 26 he has much more serious problems than looking for a team to play with ball.

The bombing

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Amir was arrested after the riots broke out last November 17 in Isfahan, the Iranian city where he was born. That day he demonstrated to protest against the death of Mahsa Amini, the young woman killed by police violence on 16 September last. During the riots in Isfahan, several shots were fired from a motorcycle that killed three members of the paramilitary body founded in 1979 by order of Ayatollah Khomeini known as the Basij. Among the victims was a colonel, and the repression was immediate and harsh.

The accusations

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As part of the investigation, according to reports from Amnesty International, 26 suspects were arrested, and 11 of these were sentenced to death on charges of ‘moharebeh’, hatred of God, ‘efsad-e fel arz’, corruption on earth, and ‘baghi’, rebellion against the state. As reported by Amnesty International last December 16, the 26 arrested were summarily judged, without the possibility of seeking legal help independently and from improvised courts. Among the 11, the best known name is that of Saman Seydi, known as Yasin, a Kurdish rapper, while Amir Nasr Azadani appears on the list of 15 arrested awaiting trial.

International case

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The presence of a footballer on the sentenced list attracted the attention of Fifpro, the international trade union, which denounced Amir’s arrest, drawing international attention to the case. Of the 26, however, nothing is known, between rumors of sentences already carried out and categorical denials. This morning the Spanish daily Marca decided to dedicate the front page to Amir, accompanying his photo with the shirt of Teraktor Sazi, the Iranian first division club for which Nasr Azadani played some time ago, and an important quotation mark: “Amir is not a terrorist and must be freed”.

The testimonials

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The words are from John Toshack, historic Welsh player and coach, with a past at Liverpool and Real Madrid, among others. Toshack coached Amir at Teraktor when he was trying to recover from a knee injury in 2019. Also joining Toshack on the club’s staff was a Spaniard, Alexis Plaza, who had formed a great relationship with Amir: “It can’t be true – Plaza declared to Marca -. It’s incredible. I had an elbow problem and I was doing rehabilitation with Amir, so I established a good relationship with him. A shy guy, reserved, but essential in the locker room, even if he was injured he always traveled with us. But as a terrorist, I can’t believe he could have killed three policemen, that’s impossible. Yesterday I spoke to our translator and he told us that he knows nothing about him, that the government has been hiding the inmates. I don’t want to think about what he will be suffering. To give you an idea of ​​the situation, Toshack and I ended up at the police station because we were walking around the city in shorts, something they relate to homosexuality”.

The reaction

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Marca’s front page had a great impact, and the reaction of the Iranian government came from South America. The country’s ambassadors in Colombia and Venezuela have attacked the Western world for exploiting the situation. “No judicial sentence has been issued against Amir Nasr Azadani – declared Hojat Soldani, Iranian ambassador in Venezuela, to the local Ultimas Noticias -. And even less a death sentence. As always, the Western media have tried to manipulate the facts with lies and slander to propagate iranophobia.” Soldani said that Amir is still alive (the news of his death had spread) and assured that “In the Iranian legal system, any accused has the right to freedom of defense, a lawyer and the possibility of appealing against the sentence” .

Government tweets

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Instead, these are the tweets published yesterday by the Iranian embassy in Colombia: “False news on the death sentence handed down to an Iranian footballer. According to the prosecution Azadani is the fifth defendant in a criminal case. He is accused of being part of an armed group that killed three police officers with automatic weapons. The trial has not yet been concluded, therefore the news of the issuing of a death penalty sentence is a pure lie. In the brutal actions of the protesters, 50 policemen were killed and hundreds more were injured. In this situation of Hybrid War, the Fake News campaign continues”. And today, also on Twitter, the Iranian embassy in Madrid intervened: “According to the court of Isfahan Amir Nasr Azadani is accused of fifth degree in the case of the death of three agents and is among the nine defendants who remain in preventive custody awaiting trial and again ‘No verdict has been handed down to the defendants in the case’”.

International case

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It seems that the international visibility given to the case by the presence of a football player has helped to shed light on the arrests and the trial to which the defendants are subjected. However, this does not exclude a priori the death sentence of Amir and the other 25 arrested after the riots in Isfahan over a month ago.