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Iranian champion wrestler Navid Afkari has been executed after being convicted of stabbing to death a security guard during anti-government protests in 2018, The Guardian said on Saturday, citing state media.

Afkari was executed “this morning after legal procedures were carried out at the insistence of the parents and the family of the victim”, the media quoted the head of the justice department in the southern Fars province as saying.

The case had attracted international outcry. Afkari had said he was tortured into making a false confession, according to his family and activists, and his attorney said there was no proof of his guilt.

Iran’s judiciary has denied the torture claims.

A global union representing 85,000 athletes called on Tuesday for Iran’s expulsion from world sport if it executed Afkari.

The US president, Donald Trump, called on Iran this month not to execute the wrestler.