Iranian authorities assure the IOC that Elnaz Rekabi will not suffer reprisals

MADRID, 19 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has received "clear guarantees" from the Iranian Olympic Committee that climber Elnaz Rekabi, who returned to Tehran on Wednesday, will not suffer "any consequences" for participating without a hijab in a competition in Seoul.

The IOC and the International Federation of Sport Climbing have held a three-way meeting with the representatives of the Iranian committee in which the latter has promised that Rekabi "will continue training and competing" normally, therefore exempt from possible reprisals.

The climber "is with her family", according to an IOC spokesperson consulted by Europa Press who has also confirmed a telephone conversation with Rekabi herself at the end of the meeting. The agency has promised to follow "closely" this case in the coming weeks.

Rekabi returned to Tehran on Wednesday, cheered at the airport as a "heroine" despite the fact that, in statements to official media, she has claimed that her gesture was purely accidental, stemming from a hasty call to compete.

In this way, it has denied that there was political intentionality, after protests have taken place in recent weeks in different cities of Iran to demand more rights as a result of the death of the young Mahsa Amini, who died in custody after being detained by wearing the veil wrong