Ex-Bodybuilding Champion Faces Renewed Sentence Amid Health Concerns
Khaled Pirzadeh, a former bodybuilding champion and political prisoner, revealed on Monday that he has received a new prison sentence of nearly six years.
Khaled Pirzadeh, a former bodybuilding champion and political prisoner, revealed on Monday that he has received a new prison sentence of nearly six years.
In an Instagram story, he disclosed convictions of "assembly and collusion" for five years and "propaganda against the system" for eight months. The story also noted his acquittal on charges of "spreading lies" and "illegitimate financial gain."
The latest conviction comes within a week of reports from a former political prisoner indicating Pirzadeh's deteriorating health following a nine-day hunger strike. Last week, Pirzadeh was urgently hospitalized in Tehran due to "convulsions," "muscle cramps," and "chest pain," specifically in the cardiology ward. Despite his reported physical distress, human rights media later revealed his return to Evin Prison a few days later.
Pirzadeh was arrested at Ahvaz airport in southwestern Iran on September 19 as he prepared to travel to Turkey with a valid passport. Intelligence agents detained him without presenting an arrest warrant.
Previously sentenced to seven years in prison in June 2019, Pirzadeh engaged in hunger strikes and sewed his right eyelid shut in protest during his incarceration. Upon release in February 2023, he faced mobility issues resulting from a spinal cord injury and an anxiety disorder.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) shot down the Ukrainian airliner shortly after it took off from Imam Khomeini International Airport near the capital Tehran on January 8, 2020. All 176 onboard the plane were killed in the incident.
The downing of the plane by two surface-to-air defense missiles, came a few hours after Iran fired missiles at US military bases in Iraq in retaliation for the US drone strike in Baghdad that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, commander of IRGC’s extraterritorial Quds Force.
The four countries, announcing their complaint to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal, said Tehran had used “weapons against a civil aircraft in flight in breach of its international legal obligations."
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the filing was "an important step in our commitment to ensuring that the families of the victims impacted by this tragedy get the justice they deserve."
Iranian authorities for three days claimed technical issues were responsible for the crash. Subsequently and under public and international pressure, Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the chief of IRGC air operations responsible for airspace security, attributed the downing of the airliner to “human error” of the air defense. The IRGC also alleged that the “risky behavior” of the United States had caused the incident.
Victims’ families chanting “What an agony is this injustice!” at the anniversary ceremony.
Iranian authorities have never explained the reason for not closing the country’s airspace amid such heightened military tensions and allowed flights out of the country’s biggest international airport as usual.
Some of the victims’ families and many Iranians have always alleged that the IRGC intended to use the plane as a human shield on the night of the missile attack on US bases and the downing of the plane was therefore "premeditated”.
A group of victims’ families convened at the site of the crash on Monday to commemorate their loved ones. In their speeches, they condemned the regime’s “fake trial” of those responsible for the tragedy. Some, like Fatemeh Arsalani who lost her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchild fearlessly cursed the Islamic Republic and the Revolutionary Guards.
Manzar Zarrabi who lost four of her loved ones reading the statement of the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims at the anniversary ceremony.
A source close to the families told Iran International in October 2020 that the IRGC was using threats of murder and torture to silence those among victims’ families who were contesting the official explanation of "human error" for shooting down the plane.
“Don’t you think you can frighten a person who has nothing to lose with threats of torture and death,” Touran Shamsollahi who lost her daughter-in-law and granddaughter in the crash said. She vowed to stand “to the end” beside her son, Canada-based Hamed Esmaeilion who has made many efforts to bring the Islamic Republic to justice.
The Association of Families of Flight PS752 as well as Canada, Britain, Ukraine, and Sweden had previously brought the case before the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, International Court of Justice (ICI), in the Hague.
Ukraine and Canada which had 63 citizens on the flight have always complained about Iran's uncooperativeness in investigation of the cause of the incident.
Many among the families of the victims were outraged by the light sentencing of those responsible for the tragic crash and refuted the court’s competence to prosecute the crime of downing the airliner.
Iran's judiciary sentenced the unnamed commander of the IRGC’s Tor-M1 surface-to-air missile system that shot down the plane to 13 years of which he would only be required to serve 10 years including the time he has already spent in prison. Nine others were also sentenced to from one to two years.
Mahmoud Alizadeh-Tabatabei, a lawyer who represented the families of several victims, told Didban news website Monday that the unnamed commander was the only one who was imprisoned but has been released on bail because the sentences passed on the defendants have not been finalized.
The sentence was carried out on Wednesday, leading to widespread condemnation, after she posted a touching personal account in a social media post.
“These lashes did not just come down on the body of one woman, they hit all those who dream of a life with normal freedoms alongside each other. Enough is enough. Don't disgust the society any more than this,” prominent political and social commentator Abbas Abdi said in a tweet.
Lashing women for not abiding by the strict hijab rules demanded by religious revolutionaries was very common in 1980s and 90s, but not carried out often in the past two decades.
Many argue that the execution of the lashing sentence violates the law since the recent hijab law passed by the parliament does not include lashing as a punishment.
Persian social media has been flooded this weekend with angry comments since the incident was publicized. People praised Heshmati for her courage to reject the forced hijab, even after her lashing.
In a statement published by its official news website, Mizan, the judiciary claimed on Sunday that Heshmati was sentenced and flogged because she had connections to "an organized group outside Iran" and had received money to defy hijab rules publicly "in a very indecent manner," presumably to encourage others to do the same. The statement added that the sentencing to 74 lashes was confirmed due to the extent of her actions, which were seen as a violation of public chastity and morals.
Some female politicians including prominent female dissident Zahra Rahnavard, who has worn the hijab by choice for decade, and Azar Mansoori who leads the Reformist Front and the People’s Unity Party of Islamic Iran have objected to the lashing of the young woman for hijab.
“You who rule! You whip Roya Heshmati’s body but she, the one with an alert and resilient conscience, laughs bitterly at you. I abhor your manner of governance,” Rahnavard who has been under house arrest since 2011 along with her husband Mir-Hossein Mousavi as leaders of Iran's anti-regime Green Movement said in a message while Mansoori said one could not be a Muslim and stay silent about Heshmati’s flogging for hijab.
The 23-year-old Heshmati, a vocal critic of compulsory hijab, was arrested at her home in April after posting a photo that showed her dressed in a modest red shirt and black skirt from behind while walking in the street without a headcover.
Heshmati who lives in Tehran was held in custody for eleven days on charges of “appearing in public without religiously prescribed hijab”. The charges of “propaganda against the regime”, “violating public decency and order”, “creating indecent social media content and encouragement of people to immorality” were brought against her later.
She was initially sentenced to thirteen years in prison, a cash fine of around $25 and 74 lashes. The appeals court dropped the prison sentence but withheld the lashing order and cash fine.
In a note published on Instagram after being lashed, she vividly described how a man hit her shoulders, back, backside, and legs with a leather whip in a small room, resembling a medieval torture chamber, while she whispered a song named “Rise, for Woman, for Life, for Freedom” under her breath.
She also said court agents kept trying to cover her head because upon entering the courtroom she had refused to wear her headscarf despite threats of harsher flogging and further prosecution.
“[The lashing] was over. We left the room. I didn't let them think I had experienced pain…We went up to the judge in charge of execution of the sentence. The female agent walked behind me and was careful not to let my headscarf drop from my head. I threw off my scarf at the courtroom entrance. The woman asked me to wear the headscarf. I didn't stop and she pulled it over my head again," she wrote.
