Brave and defiant young people in Shiraz, south-central Iran, set fire to the entrance of the mullahs’ Supreme Court in the early hours of Sunday morning, in protest to the death sentence carried out against Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari for his participation in protests in 2018.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a statement: “In protest against the criminal execution of Navid Afkari, the Iranian national wrestling champion, the defiant youth targeted the court in Shiraz, which issued his death sentence and set fire to its entrance.”

This act, welcomed by the people of Shiraz, happened while the regime’s security forces were on full alert for anti-regime actions.

The 27-year old sports hero was executed earlier this month, despite an international campaign to save his life and without the last family visit, which makes some believe that he was killed under torture and the execution was a hoax.

International media outlets and even state-run newspapers covered this act of anger by the Iranian people. Al-Arabiya reported that the NCRI footage showed an explosion and a fire at the Shiraz Revolution Court entrance, while the state-run ISNA news agency acknowledged the explosion, which it said happened after explosives were thrown at the entrance.

This is not the only act of defiance that the people have shown over Afkari’s execution in the past fortnight. The defiant youth supporters of The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), in various cities, including his hometown of Shiraz, has put up graffiti, including the slogan “Fire is the answer to execution” and given out leaflets to condemn his execution and the death sentences issued for other detained protesters.

Iran’s Revolutionary Courts are known for unfair trials and death sentences against dissidents, with most of their so-called judges and officials assigned by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and intelligence agencies, which means that they are not impartial.

In August, the regime executed Mostafa Salehi, a father of two who took part in the 2018 nationwide protests. This is just another example of the ongoing human rights violations faced by the Iranian people for any dissidence against the Iranian regime, which has only gotten worse because the international community has failed to hold the regime to account for its human rights abuses.

Iranian judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi was a key figure in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, a brutal massacre that was never investigated by the international community, so the perpetrators have never faced justice.

There were different sentiments expressed throughout many Iranian cities by MEK supporters, on September 16^{th. :}

MEK supporters in Shiraz – “Millions will rise up as a result of Navid’s martyrdom”:

MEK Iran (follow them on Twitter and Facebook)

and People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – MEK IRAN – YouTube