They are detaining a former defender of the Iranian team who supported the anti-regime protests in that Asian country

Iranian footballer Voria Ghafouri was arrested for his support for the protests that are shaking the Persian country, amid international criticism for the police and judicial repression of demonstrations.

“The Khouzestan Steel player was arrested for ‘insulting and undermining the national football team and for propaganda against the regime,’ Tasnim news agency, close to the Revolutionary Guard, reported Thursday on the former defender’s situation. ‘Iran. team.

Ghafouri, of Kurdish origin, publicly supported the protests sparked by the September death of Mahsa Aminioriginally from Iranian Kurdistan.

The mobilizations that began with the death of the 22-year-old Kurdish girl, but which have evolved and now protesters are calling for the end of the Islamic Republic founded by Ayatollah Ruholá Khomeini in 1979.

The footballers are part of one of the celebrity groups who have most expressed their support for the protesters. Without going any further, Monday the Iranian national team players did not sing the anthem of his country before the Qatar 2022 World Cup match against England, which he lost 6-2.

In another high-profile case, former player Ali Daei announced he had declined an invitation to go to Qatar as a show of solidarity with families who have lost loved ones.

But not only footballers supported the demonstrations in which at least 342 people died, according to the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights.

This was the case of mountaineer Elnaz Rekabi, who competed in Seoul without a headscarf, perhaps the best-known case of an athlete’s support for the protests.

Also, last week, actresses Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi were arrested for removing their veils, on charges of “collusion with intent to act against national security” and “propaganda against the state”.

Ghaziani posted a video on Instagram in which she defiantly appears without a veil and staring at the camera before turning away, showing her long hair and tying it back, one day after denouncing the state crackdown.

The protests were harshly repressed by the security forces, who arrested around 15,000 people, including at least 2,000 accused of various crimes.

Until now, six of the defendants were sentenced to death. The harshness of the police and judicial repression has provoked harsh international criticism, the latest today when the UN called for an international inquiry into the matter.

The UN rapporteur for Iran, Javaid Rehman, has asked the UN Human Rights Council for the creation of an international mechanism to investigate Amini’s death and the repression of subsequent protests.

With information from EFE