Iran was knocked out by the United States in the tournament in Qatar on Tuesday night, drawing mixed reactions from supporters and critics of the Iranian regime.
Mehran Samak, 27, was shot dead after honking his car horn in Bandar Anzali, a city on the Caspian Sea coast northwest of Tehran, human rights groups said.
Samak “was deliberately targeted and shot in the head by security forces (…) after the national team’s defeat against the United States,” the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said.
The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) also reported that security forces had killed him for celebrating defeat and released a video of his funeral in Tehran on Wednesday in which you could hear people screaming “death to the dictator!”.
“The day will come when the masks will fall”
Iran midfielder Saeid Ezatolahi, who played in the match against the United States and is from the city where the murder took place, said he knew Samak and posted a photo of the two on the same soccer team when they were teenagers.
“After last night’s bitter defeat, the news of your death set my heart on fire,” Ezatolahi said in a message on Instagram, referring to Samak as a “childhood companion.”
“There will come a day when the masks will fall and the truth will be discovered. It is not what our young people deserve, this is not what our nation deserves, “added the footballer in his message.
Iran is the scene of protests sparked by the death, on September 16, of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman detained three days earlier by police for violating the country’s dress code that requires the wearing of the headscarf in public.
At least 448 personasincluding 60 minors, died as a result of the repression by the security forces, according to an IHR report.
