Iranian security forces gun down amateur boxer near Tehran: source
An Iranian amateur boxer has been shot and killed by Iranian security forces during ongoing anti-regime protests.
Sepehr Ebrahimi joined protests near Tehran and died amid ongoing demonstrations driven by anger over political repression, economic hardship, and human rights violations.
Ebrahimi’s death also renewed attention on the case of another Iranian boxer, Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, who is currently on death row.
Vafaei Sani, now 30, is a champion boxer who was arrested in 2020 for participating in nationwide pro-democracy protests.
Iranian authorities accused him of supporting the opposition group the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK).
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Meanwhile, harrowing footage has also been circulating online showing the distraught father of another youth, Sepehr Shekari who was also shot by security forces.
The video shows Shekari’s father desperately searching among piles of bodies covered with black body bags, crying out for his missing son.
“Sepehr was shot and killed in Tehran,” Ali Safavi, a senior official with the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), told Fox News Digital.
Video shared on social media, which was viewed by Fox News Digital, shows Shekari’s father calling out his son’s name as he searches a warehouse filled with unidentified bodies following a violent crackdown on demonstrators.
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“My dear Sepehr, where are you?” the father can be heard crying. At one point, he shouts, “Damn Khamenei. They have killed the children of so many people. You killed so many young people!”
According to Safavi, Ebrahimi and Shekari were shot with live ammunition by Iran’s security forces during protests against the clerical regime that began Dec. 28.
Shekari’s family spent an agonizing week searching through morgues, hospitals and detention facilities before finally identifying his body among piles of corpses, also shown in the viral footage.
Maryam Rajavi, NCRI president-elect also shared a post on X dedicated to parents of those murdered by the regime. “You are not alone,” she wrote, “Every heart beats with you,” she added.
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Rights organizations also continue to highlight the plight of Vafaei Sani who has spent five years in prison, during which he has reportedly been tortured and held in prolonged solitary confinement.
In 2023, more than 100 human rights experts and international organizations sent a letter to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, urging urgent intervention to stop Vafaei Sani’s execution.
His death sentence echoes the case of Iranian wrestling champion Navid Afkari, who was executed in September 2020.
The death of Ebrahimi and others comes as Iran’s protest-related death toll continues to rise.
According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), at least 6,126 people have been killed since the start of the latest wave of protests.
HRANA also reported that 214 government-affiliated forces and 49 civilians have also been killed, while more than 17,000 deaths remain under investigation.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This report has been updated to correct the identity of the individual described as an amateur boxer killed during unrest in Iran following confusion amid the country’s internet blackout.
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