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A6 WORLD NEWS
Monday 7 SepteMber 2020
Iran airs televised confession of wrestler after Trump tweet

By JON GAMBRELL nuclear deal that Tehran
Associated Press struck with world powers.
DUBAI, United Arab Emir- That decision led to Iran
ates (AP) — Iran, which has breaking all the limits of the
a history of broadcasting deal, as well as a series of
suspected forced confes- attacks across the Mideast
sions, aired a statement by that America has blamed
a wrestler who faces the on Tehran. Later Saturday
death penalty and whose night, Iran responded to
case recently drew a criti- Trump's tweet with a nearly
cal tweet from President 11-minute state TV pack-
Donald Trump. age on Afkari. It included
The television segment and the weeping parents of the
authorities accuse Navid slain water company em-
Afkari, 27, of stabbing a ployee, Hassan Torkaman.
water supply company The package also showed
employee in the southern footage of Afkari on the
city of Shiraz amid demon- back of a motorbike, say-
strations against Iran's Shiite ing he had stabbed Torka-
theocracy in 2018. man in the back, without
Afkari's case has drawn the explaining why he alleg-
attention of a social media edly carried out the assault.
campaign that portrays The state TV segment
him and his brothers as vic- In this June 25, 2018 file photo, a group of protesters chant slogans at the main gate of the Old showed blurred police
tims targeted over partici- Grand Bazaar, in Tehran, Iran. Associated Press documents and described
pating in those protests. the killing as a "personal dis-
His case has also revived a tion workers in Shiraz, a city Shiraz sentenced Afkari to White said in a video Friday. pute," without elaborating.
demand inside the country some 680 kilometers (420 death and his brothers Va- "He's one of us. He could be It said Afkari's cellphone
that Iran, one of the world's miles) south of the capital, hid Afkari and Habib Afkari any of my fighters." had been in the area. It
top executioners, stop car- Tehran. All three took part to 54 and 27 years in prison, White said he spoke to showed surveillance foot-
rying out the death pen- in demonstrations in 2018 respectively, over the slay- Trump, who had earlier age of him walking down a
alty. that began in anger over ing. tweeted out his own con- street, talking on his phone.
Even imprisoned Iranian Iran's cratering economy Afkari's case has drawn the cern about Afkari's case. The footage resembled
human rights lawyer Nasrin and spiraled into direct attention of an online cam- "To the leaders of Iran, I what one report has de-
Sotoudeh, herself nearly a calls for the overthrow Iran's paign that's included a vid- would greatly appreciate if scribed as the at-least 355
month into a hunger strike theocracy. Such unrest has eo statement from Dana you would spare this young coerced confessions aired
over conditions at Tehran's continued sporadically in White, the president of the man's life, and not execute by Iranian state television
Evin prison amid the coro- Iran in the time since, with mixed martial arts compe- him," Trump wrote Friday. over the last decade.
navirus pandemic, has authorities arresting thou- tition called the Ultimate "Thank you!" Those supporting Afkari also
passed word that she sup- sands of people. Fighting Championship. Trump has imposed crush- have accused police of
ports Afkari. Afkari had local fame as a "He went to a peaceful pro- ing sanctions on Iran after torturing a confession out
Afkari and his brothers were wrestler, a popular sport in test in Iran and he's going unilaterally withdrawing of him after finding the sur-
employed as construc- Iran. A provincial court in to be executed for that," the United States from the veillance footage. q

Beirut search effort sparked by dog stops, no survivor found

gripped Lebanon since search-and-rescue team team, Francisco Lerman-
Thursday, sparking hope signaled the detection of da, told journalists at the
that a survivor might be a possible human pulse scene late Saturday they
found under the rubble a under the rubble of a had not found any bodies
month after the blast on collapsed building dur- amid the rubble. Lerman-
Aug. 4 that killed 191 peo- ing a tour of streets in the da said the pulsing signals
ple and wounded nearly area. Rescue workers used heard might have come
6,500. Seven people re- cranes, shovels and their from of a member of the
main missing. bare hands in a meticu- rescue team.
The devastating explo- lous search after a pulsing In past days, the Chilean
sion of nearly 3,000 tons signal was then detected team had urged people
of ammonium nitrate at by a device. on the streets, includ-
the port of Beirut caused The black-and-white ing journalists, to turn off
widespread damage to 5-year-old dog named their mobile phones and
several neighborhoods. Flash inspected the build- remain quiet for several
Rescuers search at the site of a collapsed building after getting The Lebanese capital is still ing several times a day as minutes at a time to avoid
signals there may be a survivor under the rubble, in Beirut, reeling from the blast, with aid workers removed de- interfering with their instru-
Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020.
Associated Press a quarter of a million peo- bris. ments.
ple made homeless by the Photos of Flash, in red Lermanda said they will
BEIRUT (AP) — A search after rescue workers said impact of the explosion on shoes to protect its paws, search a sidewalk after
operation of a building they did not find any sur- apartment buildings. circulated on social me- which they will declare the
that collapsed during last vivors. The latest rescue opera- dia and the dog became operation over. It was not
month’s deadly blast in The operation in the histor- tion began Thursday when a hero to many Lebanese. clear if a search for bodies
Beirut stopped on Sunday ic Mar Mikhail district had a dog used by a Chilean The head of the Chilean would continue. q