Iranian Friends

[Coach_J 2,082]

Can you give us some insight into this situation?  

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/irans-regime-to-execute-wrestling-champion-for-his-peaceful-protest-640389?fbclid=IwAR3hySBtzW0oOGfFK_k-ROGCl4AmigOQDVcrF3oM7BHW2eyLOjSWsXK5YYE

[Shiraz123 668]

Obviously a sad situation and hopefully they don't kill him but if you're asking who he was then I have to say I have never heard of him, so I doubt he was a national champion considering he is still in his 20s so it would have had to be recent. @wrestfan  do you know him? 

[Idaho 839]

Trump tweeted about this asking they spare his life. 

[uncle bernard 622]

If I had to guess, they're probably overplaying his wrestling accomplishments to get broader exposure to help spare him. Smart and admirable. 

[gimpeltf 1,643]

According to Iranwire, Afkari was a successful Greco-Roman wrestler at the local level, close to a place on the Iranian national team.

[Shiraz123 668]

14 hours ago, gimpeltf said:

According to Iranwire, Afkari was a successful Greco-Roman wrestler at the local level, close to a place on the Iranian national team.

I think even this is exaggerating 

[irani 695]

He is not in the UWW database.  I think his wrestling accomplishments are grossly exaggerated.

But that should not matter.  A man should not be executed for protesting.

Iran government treats protestors the way Trump wishes he could treat protestors in this country.

[The Genius 229]

Apparently he killed someone.

Foreign media are just using and exaggerating his wrestling 'background' to serve their agenda. Whether he wrestlers or rides horses is totally irrelevant when you commit a crime (not that they proved he did, but as a general point). 

[Billyhoyle 2,029]

2 hours ago, The Genius said:

Apparently he killed someone.

Foreign media are just using and exaggerating his wrestling 'background' to serve their agenda. Whether he wrestlers or rides horses is totally irrelevant when you commit a crime (not that they proved he did, but as a general point). 

Do you think he was given a fair trial? 

[AnklePicker 553]

3 hours ago, The Genius said:

Apparently he killed someone.

Foreign media are just using and exaggerating his wrestling 'background' to serve their agenda. Whether he wrestlers or rides horses is totally irrelevant when you commit a crime (not that they proved he did, but as a general point). 

Apparently he did or he did?  

[The Genius 229]

6 hours ago, AnklePicker said:

Apparently he did or he did?  

He apparently confessed to killing a security guard during some riots in Iran last year. Whether the confession was made freely is another question, I don't know. This story comes up every few months; Iran plans to execute someone found guilty of a capital offence and almost automatically the Western/Israeli media go into overdrive with the same things every time. 

But Western (or in this case Israeli) media suddenly caring so much about a 'champion Iranian wrestler' (that confessed to murder and is a wrestling 'champion' in the same way that I am a champion of my local chess club) strikes me as completely insincere and hypocritical given their total lack of coverage on the millions of Iranians that suffer on a day to day basis due to the illegal US economic embargo/sanctions. But I digress. 

[IronChef 812]

I admit, I didn't expect anyone on here to defend the Iranian government along with a serious case of whataboutism.

[1032004 942]

It did cross my mind that “how do we know he didn’t do it,” but based on what I’m reading it certainly seems like all signs point to he didn’t do it:

https://irannewswire.org/iran-sentences-tortured-protester-to-death-2-brothers-to-81-years-of-prison/

-the fact that his 2 brothers also got 81 combined years of prison

-apparently one of his brothers and another protester  involved were not provided lawyers

-executing protesters seems to be a common practice over there as one was just hanged in August

 

[Billyhoyle 2,029]

5 hours ago, The Genius said:

He apparently confessed to killing a security guard during some riots in Iran last year. Whether the confession was made freely is another question, I don't know. This story comes up every few months; Iran plans to execute someone found guilty of a capital offence and almost automatically the Western/Israeli media go into overdrive with the same things every time. 

But Western (or in this case Israeli) media suddenly caring so much about a 'champion Iranian wrestler' (that confessed to murder and is a wrestling 'champion' in the same way that I am a champion of my local chess club) strikes me as completely insincere and hypocritical given their total lack of coverage on the millions of Iranians that suffer on a day to day basis due to the illegal US economic embargo/sanctions. But I digress. 

Literally nobody posting here is Israeli and none of the high profile tweets are Israeli. Why do you feel the need to bring them into this? For a genius I have to question whether you are actually the greatest mind in Iranian wrestling. 

[The Genius 229]

3 hours ago, Billyhoyle said:

Literally nobody posting here is Israeli and none of the high profile tweets are Israeli. Why do you feel the need to bring them into this? For a genius I have to question whether you are actually the greatest mind in Iranian wrestling. 

I referred to Israeli media (not Israeli people as you brainlessly suggest) because the OP linked to an Israeli news website (Jerusalem Post).

But don't worry, I won't take the opportunity to reciprocate your pathetic personal attack. 

[Billyhoyle 2,029]

1 hour ago, The Genius said:

I referred to Israeli media (not Israeli people as you brainlessly suggest) because the OP linked to an Israeli news website (Jerusalem Post).

But don't worry, I won't take the opportunity to reciprocate your pathetic personal attack. 

Ahhh got it, I missed that link and it seemed random to just call out Israel.   Btw, that wasn't a personal attack on you.  There is somebody in the U.S. who goes by "the greatest mind in wrestling," or at least used to before he got sued for it, so I was simply making fun of that.  

Edited September 5, 2020 by Billyhoyle

[wrestfan 646]

On 8/31/2020 at 9:34 PM, Shiraz123 said:

Obviously a sad situation and hopefully they don't kill him but if you're asking who he was then I have to say I have never heard of him, so I doubt he was a national champion considering he is still in his 20s so it would have had to be recent. @wrestfan  do you know him? 

sorry I wasn't around for a week

and no, I never heard of him until this, apparently he was just friend with Geraei brothers and had some success in youth level in his province (province of Fars) from what I know his biggest accomplishment was taking some pictures with world bronze medalist Mohammad Ali Geraei !!

personally I have no idea in this case, I can't feel sorry for him if he really murdered a building's security guy (we are talking about a random guy who works as security, not a government agent) but then I don't trust the judiciary system in Iran, so maybe he is not guilty (slim chance though)

[jchapman 1,148]

On 9/5/2020 at 3:13 PM, The Genius said:

I referred to Israeli media (not Israeli people as you brainlessly suggest) because the OP linked to an Israeli news website (Jerusalem Post).

But don't worry, I won't take the opportunity to reciprocate your pathetic personal attack. 

Is the Israeli media made up of non-Israeli people?

[Plasmodium 1,699]

1 hour ago, jchapman said:

Is the Israeli media made up of non-Israeli people?

Yes.  Israeli media was outsourced to the Philippines in 2009.

[AnklePicker 553]

On 9/7/2020 at 3:08 AM, wrestfan said:

sorry I wasn't around for a week

and no, I never heard of him until this, apparently he was just friend with Geraei brothers and had some success in youth level in his province (province of Fars) from what I know his biggest accomplishment was taking some pictures with world bronze medalist Mohammad Ali Geraei !!

personally I have no idea in this case, I can't feel sorry for him if he really murdered a building's security guy (we are talking about a random guy who works as security, not a government agent) but then I don't trust the judiciary system in Iran, so maybe he is not guilty (slim chance though)

Slim chance he’s not guilty of murder?  I don’t pretend to know how things operate in Iran, but I learned of this story via Ben Askren who tweeted about it where it was then picked up by Dana White who sent it directly to Trump who then tweeted about it. Not a good look if they are all pushing for the release of a murderer. 

[irani 695]

Let me first start by saying I hate the Iranian government.  In no shape or form do I want to defend them, and I believe they have murdured and jailed many innocent people through the years.

However, there is something very fishy about this particular story.

• they lied or exaggered about his wrestling accomplishments
• There seems to be very organized group behind getting publicity for this story.  I myself received an email with an audio recording attributed to him (how they hell did they record his voice if he is in jail?)

What is puzzling for me, is if the organizers wanted to attack the the Iranian government, why did they pick or fabricate this story?  There are plenty of real and legitimate cases where the government has brutally dealt with protestors or even attornies representing people whose only crime is wanting freedom

Edited September 12, 2020 by irani

[AnklePicker 553]

31 minutes ago, irani said:

Let me first start by saying I hate the Iranian government.  In no share or form do I want to defend them, and I believe they have murdured and jailed many innocent people through the years.

However, there is something very fishy about this particular story.

• they lied or exaggered about his wrestling accomplishments
• There seems to be very organized group behind getting publicity for this story.  I myself received an email with an audio recording attributed to him (how they hell did they record his voice if he is in jail?)

What is puzzling for me, is if the organizers wanted to attack the the Iranian government, why did they pick or fabricate this story?  There are plenty of real and legitimate cases where the government has brutally dealt with protestors or even attornies representing people whose only crime is wanting freedom

Perhaps because of his loose ties to wrestling?  It’s scary how quickly this apparent propaganda went directly to Trump. An obvious reason why a guy like Dana White shouldn’t have a direct line to the White House. 
 

Dana White already has a distaste for Ben Askren, it seems White got his info from Ben originally, if he was duped and took it straight to the president...

And I don’t want to fall into the same trap so if he’s innocent good on those guys for bringing attention to it but like you said it just seems fishy. 

[wrestfan 646]

2 hours ago, irani said:

• There seems to be very organized group behind getting publicity for this story.  I myself received an email with an audio recording attributed to him (how they hell did they record his voice if he is in jail?)

Yep and people in that group don't want him to survive, they want him to get executed so then they can find another reason to blame the regime. they are the same people lobby with corrupt politicians in the west to put more pressure on Iran (actually on Iranian people, I mean ordinary people) , nobody knows how many people have died directly or indirectly in past 2-3 years because of these sanctions, I just heard we had 1000 more successful suicides in Iran comparing to the same time last year. and now these guys (and their American friends) care about 1 single (most probable) criminal just because he happened to be a low level wrestler long time ago ? come on.

this is a battle between the devil (IR) and another devil (Anti-IR groups in the west) and to be honest I hate them both

[irani 695]

4 hours ago, wrestfan said:

Yep and people in that group don't want him to survive, they want him to get executed so then they can find another reason to blame the regime. they are the same people lobby with corrupt politicians in the west to put more pressure on Iran (actually on Iranian people, I mean ordinary people) , nobody knows how many people have died directly or indirectly in past 2-3 years because of these sanctions, I just heard we had 1000 more successful suicides in Iran comparing to the same time last year. and now these guys (and their American friends) care about 1 single (most probable) criminal just because he happened to be a low level wrestler long time ago ? come on.

this is a battle between the devil (IR) and another devil (Anti-IR groups in the west) and to be honest I hate them both

This is the one group that has an internet farm in Albania tasked with entering false information on social media https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/16/world/europe/iran-mek-albania.html

I hate them both as well, but I must say, if there is one group that I hate more than the Iranian government, it's these bastards.  They pay sleazeballs like Guiliani and John Bolton to attend their annual events and feed nonsense to their cult members  https://theiranproject.com/blog/2018/06/13/us-national-security-advisor-paid-by-mko-terrorists-in-2017/    
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/30/rudy-giuliani-mek-iran-paris-rally

Edited September 11, 2020 by irani

[calot 205]

Reports this morning are that Afkari was executed