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In excess of 20 Olympic champions, mentors and further international athletes have put their names to a appeal calling for a halt to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and trainer, who is on death row in the nation.

Increasing Global Anger

During increasing international outrage over the country's escalating use of capital punishment as a tool of oppression, the strongly worded appeal condemns the Iranian regime's decision to uphold the execution order of the boxing champion.

The boxer, thirty, from the city in north-east Iran, was taken into custody for taking part in countrywide demonstrations in 2019 and indicted of supporting an dissident organization. He has passed half a decade in incarceration, where he has been abused and held in seclusion.

“Athletics is designed to promote faith, solidarity, and fortitude,” the signatories stated. “The execution of a titleholder for his opinions is a clear violation on these principles and a caution to any competitor who ventures to express dissent.

Pattern of Putting to Death Athletes

The appeal said that Vafaei Sani’s situation was not unique and emphasized the nation's history of putting to death competitors for their beliefs, including a national team leader, leader of the soccer squad, and a volleyball captain, captain of the women's volleyball squad. In two thousand twenty, a wrestling champion, a 27-year national competitor, was also executed.

Further endorsers to the letter comprise a sailing champion, who skippered the inaugural women's squad in a international sailing event and was the first woman to earn a esteemed sailing award; the former leader of the soccer side Craig Foster; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the country's selection for the global tournament.

Apprehension and Unfair Trial

Vafaei Sani was arrested in the spring of 2020. The allegations against him entailed “spreading corruption on Earth through incendiarism and destruction of government belongings”. His sentence has been overturned twice but on 4 October it was confirmed on the third occasion. His trial was criticized as “deeply biased” by human rights activists and bodies.

Urging to UN

The call to stop Vafaei Sani’s capital punishment comes after a earlier statement to the UN high commissioner for human rights, endorsed by more than one hundred advocates and organizations, urging action to prevent the athlete’s death.

Execution Crisis

According to reports, there is an “death penalty surge in Iran, which has reached horrific levels”. In 2023, officials sentenced at least over 850 people – a forty-eight percent rise on 2022. Last year, records showed 972 capital punishments, representing the maximum count since two thousand fifteen. More than 800 people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Dissidents and dissidents are targets, particularly in the aftermath of the the year 2022 uprising. Specialists say the regime have used the death penalty to suppress opposition, generate apprehension among the population and strengthen their control on power.