[5] In September 2020 the United States blacklisted several Iranian officials and entities over alleged gross violations of human rights that also included Navid Afkari's execution.

[10] Navid Afkari had been a wrestler, having discovered the sport at the age of nine,[2] and had participated in several national Iranian wrestling events.

[11] Afkari was arrested for the murder of Hasan Turkman, who worked as a security guard for Water and Sewage company of Shiraz,[12] on 17 September 2018.

According to the Iranian Criminal Investigation Police, Afkari was arrested after he was identified in CCTV footage from nearby the murder scene.

[15][20][21] In addition to the CCTV footage, the court used eye-witness accounts as the other evidence for linking Afkari with Turkman's murder case.

[22][23] For his involvement in the protests, and further the alleged murder case, the court led by the head judge, Mehrdad Tahmtan,[24][25] sentenced Afkari with two capital punishments.

No matter the countless times I wrote (and pleaded) that all my confessions were obtained under (pressure and) torture; or how there is not a single shred of evidence in this damned case that could prove my guilt, but they did not want to hear our voice.

[28] According to human rights activists in Iran, his brothers Vahid and Habib were sentenced to 54 and 27 years in prison for charges stemming from the same case,[28] as well as 74 lashes each.

In a tweet from 1 May 2021, journalist and activist Masih Alinejad said that Vahid was subjected to pressure to make forced confessions under the threat of execution.

[32][33][34][35] Trump tweeted on 4 September 2020: Hearing that Iran is looking to execute a great and popular wrestling star, 27-year-old Navid Afkarai [sic], whose sole act was an anti-government demonstration on the streets.

State Department spokeswoman, Morgan Ortagus, tweeted: "We join the world in outrage at the Iranian regime's death sentence for Navid Afkari, who was tortured into giving a false confession after participating in peaceful protests in 2018.

[12] Iran's state-sponsored Tasnim News Agency dismissed Trump's tweet in a feature story, saying that US sanctions had hurt Iranian hospitals amid the pandemic, "Trump is worried about the life of a murderer while he puts many Iranian patients' lives in danger by imposing severe sanctions," the agency said.

[38] Australian sports administrator Brendan Schwab, executive director of the Switzerland-based World Players Association, which represents tens of thousands of professional athletes around the world, said that: We can't think of a more grievous attack on the humanitarian values of the Olympic movement than the horrific execution of an athlete through a coerced confession obtained through torture.

His brother received the news of Afkari's death through a call shortly before his plane was due to depart for Shiraz in order to go and visit the Turkmans.

[45][46][44] Members of the Iranian diaspora held protest vigils in cities worldwide, including Toronto,[47] Winnipeg,[48] Edmonton,[49] Frankfurt,[50] Paris, Berlin, London, Gothenburg, The Hague, Bern, Brussels, Copenhagen, Rome, Malmö, Hamburg and Washington.

Elham Afkari, Navid's sister, was arrested on November 10, 2022 amidst the nationwide protests in Iran following the Death of Mahsa Amini.