Mohammad Mehdi Karami, Karate Competitor, Executed By Iran For Protesting

Another athlete has been executed by the Iran regime this past week during wide protests across the country that have been ongoing for months. Mohammad Mehdi Karami, a nationally ranked competitor in karate was executed on January 7th for the alleged killing of Seyed Ruhollah Ajamain, a Basij paramilitary force member. Karami was executed alongside Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, a children’s coach. Karami was only 22 years old.

According to a lawyer advocating for Karami, the karateka was not given any final rights to speak with his loved ones before he was executed. He also reportedly begun a dry food hunger strike in protest for not letting Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, the aforementioned lawyer, to represent him.

The lawyer said he met with Hosseini in prison. “I met Mohammad Hosseini in Karaj prison. He was in tears, talking about how he was tortured and beaten while blindfolded…Statements made by a person under torture have no legal merit.” He continues, “Mehdi Called me and said they had sentenced me to execution, but he asked me not to tell his mother.” Grim as it sounds and it seems Karami was subjected to the same torture.

After the executions, the European Union and the United Nation Human Rights organization spoke out against the slaughter of citizens by the Iran regime.

Mohammad Mehdi Karami, Executions, and Iran

The allegations of the murder of a paramilitary force member is nothing new in Iran. Majid Jamali Fashi was alleged to have killed a nuclear scientist. Navid Afkari was killed after being tortured into a confession. Mehdi Ali Hosseini, Shahin Naseri, and many other athletes have been silenced with the gallows as Iran, who is in the midst of upheaval.

The protests started when masha Amini, a young woman, was arrested for violating Iran’s mandatory hijab law due to wearing the hijab “improperly.” She was severely beaten, something denied by the Iranian authorities. Amini died and that was the match that lit the gasoline ablaze. Protests erupted across the country and the regime has struggled to keep order.

But the gas was poured before that. Well before that. Since the Islamic State of Iran took power, persecutions of women and dissidents of the regime have been hunted down and executed. The stories I mention are linked in the index below.

Majid Jamali Fashi, a kickboxer, was executed after he allegedly killed a nuclear physicist. The evidence didn’t add up. Navid Afkari, a young wrestler, was tortured and sentenced to death. UFC president Dana White and then-president Donald Trump pleaded for leniency. Afkari was executed. The bothers of Afkari are jalied to this day. Mehdi Ali Hosseini, Ali Mutairi and more have been killed.

Iran doesn’t only kill their athletes. They control them as well. Saeid Mollaei, a judoka, was forced to leave an IJF tournament when it was clear he would be facing an Israeli opponent. Reza Tabrizi, a paralympian body builder, was jailed during the pandemic. Khaled Pirzadeh, a body builder, was tortured in jail and stitched his own lips shut in protest. Kimia Alizadeh, a taekwondo fighter, fled her country and competed elswehere for the Olympics. Amir Yazdani forced out of the Wrestling World Championships for the same reason as Saeid Mollaei. The list goes on.

Majid Jamali Fashi. Navid Afkari. Mehdi Ali Hosseini. Ali Mutairi. Shahin Naseri. Mohammad Mehdi Karami.