41 year old Javad Foroughi, who is accused of being a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a "terrorist" , won the gold medal in the 10-metre air pistol event on Tokyo Olympics.

Accused global terrorist won gold in Tokyo Olympics

  "How can a terrorist win gold at the Olympics? It's absurd and ridiculous.". 

By Edward Era Barbacena

Tokyo - . The contested medal is the one won by the Iranian Javad Foroughi, who triumphed at the Olympics in shooting with the 10-meter pistol. 

The Tokyo Olympics were shaken by the controversy surrounding the awarding of a gold medal to " a terrorist ". The contested prize is the one won by the 41-year-old Iranian athlete Javad Foroughi , who triumphed last Saturday in the 10-meter air pistol final shooting, dedicating his sporting success, as reported by Alarabya , to Ayatollah Khamenei. However, this victory is strongly contested by shooters from other countries and by humanitarian NGOs because they accuse Foroughi of belonging to a terrorist organization.

Iran's netizens are sharing these two images and saying: On the right is the IRGC paramilitary Basij member who shot protesters from a rooftop in Tehran during the 2009 uprising, On the left is Javad Foroughi. 

The 41-year-old, who served in Syria as a nurse between 2013 and 2015, is in fact accused of being a member of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), that is, of a military formation in Tehran inserted by the US, in 2019, precisely in the list of terrorist groups. Consequently, Pasdaran Foroughi - protesters argue - should not even have participated in the Olympics, as the aims and bloodthirsty activities of the aforementioned Iranian militia are incompatible with the values ​​of sport.

To start the controversy regarding the participation and victory of the 41-year-old was, reconstructs the Corriere dello Sport , the South Korean shooter Jin Jong-oh, winner of silver in Beijing 2008 and gold in London 2012 but eliminated in the qualifiers for Tokyo 2020, who complained:

South Korean shooter Jin Jong-oh has called Iranian gold medalist Javad Foroughi "a terrorist" and questioned why he was allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics. Foroughi is a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps labelled a terrorist organisation by the US in 2019. 

South Korean shooter Jin Jong-oh has lashed out at the International Olympic Committee labelling gold medal winner Javad Foroughi, who is a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a "terrorist"

 "How can a terrorist win gold at the Olympics? It's absurd and ridiculous."

In comments reported by the Korea Times, the six-times Olympic medallist added it was “pure nonsense” to allow Javad Foroughi to compete in the Tokyo Games given his membership in a militia of the IRGC, which was labelled a terrorist organisation by the US in 2019.

The campaign group United for Navid, set up after the execution of the Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari after he protested against the regime, has also urged the IOC ethics commission to launch an immediate investigation. It also warned that the IOC was “complicit in promoting terrorism and crimes against humanity” if it failed to act.

The human rights NGO United for Navid, created in memory of the fighting champion Navid Afkari, executed by the authorities of the Islamic country for having protested against the republic, contributed to strengthening the disputes about the medal won by the Iranian athlete. 

The representatives of the association in question addressed the following harsh words to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), regarding the decision of this institution to admit the " terrorist " Foroughi to the five circles tournament and to have him awarded:

"We consider the awarding of the Olympic gold medal to Javad Foroughi to be a catastrophenot only for Iranian sport but also for the international community, and above all for the reputation of the IOC. Foroughi has long been a member of a terrorist organization. 41-year-old Foroughi is a current and longtime member of a terrorist organization. The Revolutionary Guards have a history of violence and killing not only of Iranian people and demonstrators, but also of innocent people in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon."

The IOC immediately reacted to the accusations launched by the United for Navid activists by inviting them to demonstrate the actual belonging to the pasdaran of the Iranian shooter indicted, with Mark Adams, spokesman of the same committee, who addressed the former stating precisely: " If they have the proof , we are here ". However, it is precisely the Tehran press that claims, from the homepage of the Javan website , the shooter's membership of the Guardians of the Revolution, celebrating Foroughi's triumph with phrases such as " an unexpected medal ... won by a guard nurse who is at the same time defender of health and of the sanctuary ".