Popular 19-year-old champion wrestler killed in Iran by hanging

Teenage champion wrestler, Saleh Mohammadi, has been executed by the Islamic regime in Iran for protesting against the rule of Ayatollah Khamenei.

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s judiciary ignored pleas from the United States' State Department, along with appeals from elite Iranian-American wrestlers, urging them to halt the execution.

According to Fox News report on March 19, 2026, the 19-year-old wrestler was killed by public hanging as punishment for opposing the regime, in what activists say was intended to discourage other Iranians from dissent.

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Human rights activist and Iranian combat athlete Nima Far, an expert on elite Iranian wrestling, condemned the act, describing it as “political murder” meant to deter opposition, particularly among athletes.

“His execution was a blatant political murder, part of the Islamic Republic’s pattern of targeting athletes to crush dissent and terrorize society, as seen with Navid Afkari and others executed despite international outcry,” he told Fox News Digital.

Far further criticised the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and United World Wrestling (UWW) for their silence, arguing they should have threatened to expel Iran from competitions.

“The IOC and UWW should have intervened forcefully with public ultimatums, threatening immediate suspension of Iran’s NOC and federations if the killing proceeded, rather than relying on ineffective quiet diplomacy, given their own commitments to protect athletes from politically motivated harm,” he added.

The US State Department and Iran’s UN Mission in New York have yet to comment on the tragic incident.

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