International Olympic Committee
President Thomas Bach
Villa du Centenaire
Quai d’Ouchy 1
1006 Lausanne
Switzerland

Vienna, 12/09/2020

Dear Mr. Bach, President of the IOC

As you mentioned in your statement, we all received the sad news of the execution of the wrestler Navid Afkari in Iran. According to our information his body was full of signs of torture at the time of execution.

As Iranians, we would like to express our gratitude for your deep attention to this tragic issue and your efforts to prevent it by contacting the Supreme Leader of Iran, Mr. Khamenei. However, Mr President, Navid was tortured and subsequently executed. In such circumstances, when a country executes its own athletes, with confessions made under severe torture, we expect international solidarity, and especially in this case, the IOC's solidarity with the family of the murdered Navid and with the mourning athletes in Iran, Navid's comrades.

Mr President, we urge you to ban the Iranian Athletics Federation from international competitions, to ban the holding of competitions in Iran, at least for a limited period of time. As happened once in the case of Russia, athletes should be able to compete without the Iranian flag. This would send a signal that barbaric torture and executions of athletes are not tolerated by the sporting spirit of the IOC.

We all owe this to Navid.

Prof. Dr. Siroos Mirzaei
Medical Professionals for Human Rights
in Iran – Austria

Dr. Behrouz Bayat
Committee for the Defence of Human Rights
in Iran-Austria



Letter to: International Olympic Committee in PDF