• What Happened: Iran publicly hanged 19-year-old wrestling champion Saleh Mohammadi in Qom on Wednesday along with two other young men, the first executions tied to January's nationwide protests. Rights groups say he was tortured into a confession, denied a fair trial, and security cameras never even placed him at the scene.
  • Why It Matters: Mohammadi had just turned 19 last week. He won a bronze medal representing Iran internationally in 2024. Iran International reviewed documents suggesting over 36,500 Iranians were killed by security forces during the January 8-9 crackdown alone, the deadliest two-day protest massacre in recorded history.
  • Bottom Line: This is the regime the world wants to negotiate with. This is who runs Iran. A boy who wrestled for his country is dead because he would not stay silent.

Today, the Iranian regime publicly hanged Saleh Mohammadi in a square in Qom. He was 19 years old. He had just celebrated his birthday last week. Three months before he was executed, he posted a video of himself returning to wrestling after an injury and wrote: "And we held on beyond what we ever imagined for ourselves."

Those were his last words to the world.

Mohammadi was a bronze medalist at the 2024 Buvaisar Saitiev International Tournament in Russia, a rising star on Iran's national wrestling team. He was arrested January 15, 2026, one week after nationwide anti-government protests peaked in Qom. The regime accused him of involvement in the killing of two police officers. Security camera footage never identified him at the scene. His family, coaches, and teammates all testified he was at his uncle's home that night. The court rejected his testimony that his confession was obtained under torture.

Amnesty International said he was denied "adequate defense and forced to make confessions in fast-tracked proceedings that bore no resemblance to a meaningful trial." Iran Human Rights confirmed the execution and said all three men hanged today "had been sentenced to death following an unfair trial, based on confessions obtained under torture." He was charged with moharebeh, waging war against God, a capital offense under Iran's sharia law.

He was hanged in public, in the presence of a crowd.

"His execution was a blatant political murder, part of the Islamic Republic's pattern of targeting athletes to crush dissent and terrorize society," said Nima Far, an Iranian combat athlete and human rights activist. "The International Olympic Committee and global sports bodies failed."

Mohammadi is not the first Iranian wrestler executed for protesting. In 2020, wrestler Navid Afkari was hanged for allegedly killing a security guard during 2018 demonstrations. The pattern is not accidental. The regime targets athletes because athletes have faces, names, and international audiences. The executions are a message.

The January protests that led to Mohammadi's arrest came at a staggering cost. Iran International reviewed documents suggesting that over 36,500 Iranians were killed by security forces during the January 8-9 crackdown, in what rights groups are calling the deadliest two-day protest massacre in history. HRANA has independently recorded over 7,000 confirmed killings, warning the actual toll is far higher. Hundreds more protesters remain in detention facing possible death sentences. Iran's judiciary chief has promised "no leniency."

Iran is the world's second most prolific executioner after China. Last year alone it hanged at least 1,500 people.

This is the government the world spent years trying to negotiate with. This is who fired missiles at American troops. This is who chants death to America and death to Israel at state-sanctioned rallies. And today, while Americans debate whether this is "Israel's war" or "America's war," a teenager who wrestled for his country was publicly hanged in a square because he stood up and said no.

His name was Saleh Mohammadi. He was 19 years old. Remember him.