Add The New York Post on Google The brother of a star Iranian athlete sentenced to death after bravely protesting against the repressive Islamic regime is begging President Trump to broker an 11th-hour miracle.
Arash Naghdi is desperate for the president to intervene in his brother’s case during negotiations with Iran and pressure the Ayatollah to stay his execution.
“Please help us, do everything you can to save my brother,” an emotional Arash Naghdi, 37, implored during an interview with The Post from Shiraz, Iran.
Benyamin Naghdi, a champion kickboxer who was once a member of the national team, was sentenced to death in May for allegedly using a makeshift flamethrower to stave off security forces at an anti-regime protest in January.
Naghdi was charged with “enmity against God” and the Iranian Supreme Court upheld the death sentence on July 30, leaving the family with little time and fewer options to save Benyamin’s life.
The family hasn’t been given an exact date date for his hanging, but they fear it is imminent.
“He’s only 26 years old, he has his whole life ahead of him, he deserves the chance to live, to dream, to build a future,” Arash said, choking back tears.
Arash said he has been receiving threatening phone calls from unlisted numbers. Yet despite fears of being arrested himself, he’s compelled to speak out to try to convince the US and the international community to save his brother.
“My plea is simple and heartfelt: please help my brother, please save his life.”
Arash said he hasn’t been allowed to visit his brother in prison but his parents were allowed a “final goodbye” two months ago — part of psychological torture the regime imposes on families of the convicted.
His father described Benyamin as an emaciated ghost of his former self.
“I’m convinced he was tortured, he’s lost all hope . . . he called our cousin and threatened to harm himself in an attempt to delay his execution,” Arash said, his voice trembling with rage and terror.
The Islamic regime has executed least 56 people on trumped-up charges since March — 27 of whom were arrested during the January protests.
The president in January vowed the US would take “very strong action” against the Islamic Republic should they hang protesters — and stated the regime called off executions at his behest.
But the nation on Aug. 3 executed political prisoners Omid Behzad and Pouria Safvat after they were convicted of spying for Israel.
The Iranian security forces turned the January protests into a bloodbath, slaughtering at least 52,000 demonstrators, according to figures cited by Trump.
Arash said he is convinced that his brother was trying to protect himself and his fellow protesters from security forces who are seen chasing him down on motorcycles in a horrifying video.
The regime publicly hanged two protesters in Isfahan in late July and broadcast footage of their executions inside the prison, causing Benyamin’s mental state to spiral, Arash said.
His brother was held in solitary confinement for months, and only transferred to general population less than a month ago after going on a 10-day long hunger strike.
Benyamin had put his athletic aspirations aside to support his family after his father’s health deteriorated due to chemical weapons exposure from the Iran-Iraq War.
He took on whatever jobs he could to help provide for his parents and teenage sister, working as a mechanic, carpenter, fruit vendor and tour guide.
Rapid inflation — fueled by decades of political and economic mismanagement by the mullahs and US sanctions — made saving money nearly impossible for the young kickboxer.
“Benyamin is the backbone of our family, he was always looking out for everyone else . . . even from prison he calls me to tell me to take care of our mother,” said Arash.
His brother was never a political person, Arash said, but his family’s economic struggles drove him to join the protest movement.
“He went because of the hardships he was living through, The feeling that he had no future, he couldn’t make ends meet or provide money for his family,” Arash said.
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Arash has had to step in as breadwinner — driving a truck all day and night — while his parents desperately try to save his brother’s life.
“My ailing father spends his days going from courthouse to police station, he does all this with no resources, borrowing money wherever he can,” Arash said.
His heartbroken mother cries every night, and not a minute goes by where she doesn’t mention her son, he said.
“In Iran we have a saying, ‘One eye is full of tears, the other is full of blood” — this is our mother,” he said.
