Iran today hanged wrestling champion Navid Afkari.

Afkari was among thousands of Iranians to join 2018 nationwide protests against the government. These protests lasted most of the year, and spread through most of Iran’s major cities, and eventually drew a draconian response.

Clashes in Shiraz resulted in the killing of a water and sewage department security guard named Hasan Torkman, and it was this that was laid at Navid Afkari’s feet as homicide.

Afkari’s case drew international condemnation, especially from world athletes who agreed with his claims that he was targeted for his grappling fame in order to send a message, and that his confession to the murder was tortured out of him. As a further twist of the knife, Afkari’s brothers Vahid and Habib were also convicted in the same affair and received lengthy prison terms. Video that campaigners circulated of Navid’s mother is positively devastating … as is the heartbreaking audio of Navid’s last message shortly before his execution.

On this day..

• 1917: Private John Abigail
• 1869: An Dehai, beloved eunuch
• 1862: Not Finnigan, miner's court survivee
• 1835: Francisco Ruiz, prostrated pirate
• 1879: Pocket, on the Hallettsville hanging tree
• 2007: Daryl Holton, wanted dead
• 1864: George Nelson, Indiana Jones rapist
• 1642: Henri Coiffier de Ruze, Marquis of Cinq-Mars
• 1823: Abram Antoine, revenger
• 1772: The Marquis de Sade and his servant, in effigy
• 1914: A French soldier, "yours also is a way of dying for France"
• 1860: (William) Walker, Nicaragua Ranger