Vahid Afkari comes from a close-knit family. He enjoyed reading, singing, and dancing at home with his brothers Habib and Navid.
In 2016, 2017 and 2018 Vahid, Navid and Habib peacefully joined protests in their home town of Shiraz about inequality and political repression. On 17 September 2018, Vahid and Navid were arrested at their home for protesting. Habib was arrested three months later.
The Iranian authorities held the three brothers in solitary confinement, tortured them, and forced them to “confess” to crimes they repeatedly said they did not commit. In a huge miscarriage of justice, the brothers were convicted on politically motivated charges stemming from their peaceful participation in protests. Vahid and Navid were also convicted after a baseless accusation involving the murder of a security official. The authorities unjustly sentenced Navid to death, and Habib and Vahid to decades in prison and 74 lashes each.
The three brothers were moved to solitary confinement cells in September 2020. On 12 September 2020, Navid was executed in secret, without any warning to him, his family, or his lawyers. Navid’s execution ignited outrage in Iran and throughout the world and led to escalated campaigning for Habib and Vahid. Habib was released from prison in March 2022, after spending 550 days in solitary confinement.
The authorities have been cruelly holding Vahid in solitary confinement since September 2020 and totally isolating him from other prisoners.
Tell Iran to free Vahid Afkari