🔗 Share this article

Over twenty Olympic medal winners, mentors and further global sports figures have put their names to a letter calling for a stop to the execution of a boxing champion and coach, who is facing execution in the country.

Growing International Outrage

During increasing global condemnation over the country's expanding employment of capital punishment as a tool of oppression, the powerfully expressed letter denounces the Iranian regime's verdict to confirm the capital punishment of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The boxer, 30, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was taken into custody for taking part in nationwide protests in 2019 and indicted of backing an dissident organization. He has endured five years in incarceration, where he has been abused and held in solitary confinement.

“Competition is intended to encourage optimism, togetherness, and bravery,” the supporters stated. “The execution of a winner for his political views is a blatant attack on these ideals and a caution to any competitor who attempts to speak out.

Record of Executing Sports Figures

The appeal noted that Vafaei Sani’s situation was not unique and emphasized the nation's past of executing athletes for their beliefs, for example Habib Khabiri, skipper of the national football team, and a volleyball captain, skipper of the women's volleyball squad. In 2020, an athlete, a young national competitor, was put to death.

Other supporters to the appeal include a sailing champion, who captained the inaugural women's squad in a international sailing event and was the initial female to earn a esteemed yachting trophy; the previous leader of the national squad a sports advocate; and a footballer, who was in the national team for the international competition.

Arrest and Flawed Legal Process

The boxer was detained in March 2020. The accusations against him included “causing deterioration on Earth through incendiarism and destruction of state assets”. His verdict has been annulled on two occasions but on 4 October it was confirmed on the latest review. His trial was denounced as “deeply biased” by rights defenders and groups.

Call to UN

The call to halt the boxer's capital punishment comes after a earlier letter to the global human rights chief for freedoms, endorsed by in excess of a hundred advocates and groups, calling for action to prevent the competitor's capital punishment.

Death Penalty Surge

Based on findings, there is an “death penalty surge in the country, which has achieved shocking levels”. In 2023, the government put to death at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a forty-eight percent rise on 2022. Last year, statistics showed 972 executions, constituting the highest number since 2015. More than hundreds of people have been executed so far in 2025.

Dissidents and dissidents are victims, especially in the aftermath of the 2022 uprising. Experts say the Iranian authorities have utilized the death penalty to suppress protest, generate fear among the public and reinforce their hold on rule.