ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran has sentenced a teenage athlete to death over his alleged killing of a police officer during recent widespread anti-government protests, a human rights watchdog said, though Iranian semi-official media denied the reports and insisted there is no final enforceable sentence.

Saleh Mohammadi, an 18-year-old wrestler from Qom, has been sentenced to “death in retribution” (Iran’s qisas law) for the alleged “murder of a police officer” during the January 8 protests in his hometown, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO reported on Thursday.

Mohammadi “was forced to make self-incriminating confessions in the investigation phase which he later retracted in court,” the watchdog claimed, citing its “informed” sources. 

“The court rejected Saleh Mohammadi’s claims that his confession was obtained under torture and ruled that his execution be carried out in public at the site of the alleged crime.”  

Iran has a long history of broadcasting alleged confessions from detainees that are widely believed to be coerced, often obtained through threats, psychological pressure, and, in some cases, physical torture, and commonly described as “forced confessions.”

However, the Iranian semi-official Mehr News Agency earlier on Thursday, citing the judiciary, denied reports that Mohammadi, who competed in an international freestyle wrestling competition in Russia in 2024, had been sentenced to death, asserting that a review of his case shows that he “does not have any final enforceable sentence,” with authorities describing him as having been arrested during “terrorist acts in January.” 

Iran’s judiciary has ordered intensified cases against protesters labeled as “foreign plots” and “terrorist elements” working for the US and Israel, saying there will be “no leniency” for those acting against the country’s security and warning that they could face charges often punishable by death under the Islamic Republic’s judicial system.

Iran has been rocked by nationwide protests since late last year, which have spread to the majority of provinces and increasingly become anti-government in nature, prompting a violent crackdown from Iranian authorities. 

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reports that Iranian security forces have killed more than 7,000 protesters and injured over 11,000 since the demonstrations began in late December. The monitor also reports that at least 245 forced confessions have been broadcast so far.

On Sunday, monitors warned that protesters arrested for their involvement in Iran’s ongoing nationwide protests have been subjected to ‘widespread’ sexual violence while in custody, resulting in severe psychological damage.