In the early hours of Thursday 19 March, Saleh Mohammadi was taken from his cell in Qom Central Prison and executed by hanging. He was nineteen years old. Eight months ago, he was representing Iran at the Saitiev Cup in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, where he won a bronze medal. Between then and now, his country decided to kill him.
The charges were ‘moharebeh’ — enmity against God — based on the allegation that Mohammadi killed a Special Units police officer during the January protests in Qom. Mohammadi maintained throughout that he was at his uncle’s house at the time. Eyewitnesses corroborated his alibi. CCTV footage appeared to support it. None of this mattered. The trial, according to Amnesty International, bore “no resemblance to a meaningful trial.” The confession was coerced. The sentence was predetermined.
The Regime’s Message
Mohammadi was not executed despite being a young athlete. He was executed because he was a young athlete. The regime under Mojtaba Khamenei — who assumed power after his father’s death in the American strikes — is sending a calculated message to the population: nobody is safe. Not the young, not the talented, not the internationally known. Protest, and we will kill you. It does not matter if you are innocent. The point is not justice. The point is terror.
Two other men, Mehdi Ghasemi and Saeed Davoudi, were hanged alongside Mohammadi. They were the first executions linked to the January 2026 protests, a wave of demonstrations that erupted after the US-Israeli strikes and quickly turned into anti-regime uprisings across multiple cities. The regime has arrested thousands. The executions have now begun.
International Condemnation
The response from the international sporting community has been swift and furious. Former Olympic wrestlers from multiple countries have issued statements condemning the execution. United World Wrestling, the sport’s governing body, called it “an unconscionable act against a young athlete.” Iran’s national wrestling federation — a powerhouse that has produced dozens of Olympic medallists — remained silent.
Human rights organisations have been equally blunt. Amnesty International said Mohammadi was denied adequate defence and subjected to a “fast-tracked” process designed to produce a predetermined outcome. Iran Human Rights, the Norway-based monitoring group, called the execution a war crime against the regime’s own people.
The Bigger Picture
Mohammadi’s execution fits a pattern that has defined the Iranian regime’s response to every wave of dissent: make an example, and make it public. The regime executed over 800 people in 2023, many of them linked to the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. The calculation is always the same: the cost of dissent must be made so high that nobody dares to pay it.
But the calculation has a flaw. Every execution creates a martyr. Every martyr strengthens the resolve of those who survive. Saleh Mohammadi is already becoming a symbol — of a regime so frightened of its own young people that it would rather kill them than listen to them. History suggests that regimes which govern through execution do not survive forever. The question is how many more Saleh Mohammadis will die before this one falls.