🔗 Share this article

In excess of two dozen Olympic medal winners, trainers and further international athletes have put their names to a statement demanding a halt to the death penalty of a boxing champion and trainer, who is facing execution in the country.

Growing Global Anger

Amid increasing international outrage over the country's escalating use of capital punishment as a instrument of oppression, the powerfully expressed letter censures the government's verdict to maintain the capital punishment of the boxing champion.

Vafaei Sani, three decades old, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was detained for being involved in nationwide protests in 2019 and accused of aiding an resistance movement. He has spent half a decade in incarceration, where he has been mistreated and confined in isolation.

“Athletics is intended to inspire optimism, togetherness, and bravery,” the signatories wrote. “The execution of a champion for his beliefs is a blatant attack on these ideals and a admonition to any competitor who ventures to voice opinions.

History of Putting to Death Athletes

The letter said that the athlete's situation was not unique and emphasized the country's past of sentencing to death athletes for their views, such as a football captain, captain of the soccer squad, and a volleyball captain, skipper of the women's volleyball squad. In two thousand twenty, an athlete, a 27-year national competitor, faced the death penalty.

Additional supporters to the appeal consist of a yachting pioneer, who captained the pioneering women's squad in a international sailing event and was the pioneering lady to receive a prestigious yachting trophy; the former leader of the national squad Craig Foster; and a footballer, who was in the Iranian squad for the international competition.

Detention and Unjust Proceedings

The athlete was detained in early 2020. The accusations against him comprised “causing deterioration on Earth through fire-setting and damage of government belongings”. His verdict has been annulled on two occasions but on the fourth of October it was maintained on the third attempt. His legal proceedings was condemned as “highly unjust” by rights defenders and bodies.

Call to United Nations

The call to prevent Vafaei Sani’s death sentence is subsequent to a 2023 letter to the UN high commissioner for rights, backed by over 100 advocates and entities, calling for action to avert the sports figure's execution.

Execution Crisis

As per reports, there is an “execution crisis in Iran, which has achieved alarming levels”. In the year 2023, the government sentenced at least 853 people – a 48% rise on 2022. Last year, statistics showed nine hundred seventy-two deaths, marking the maximum count since the year 2015. In excess of hundreds of people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Activists and dissidents are targets, especially in the aftermath of the the year 2022 uprising. Analysts say the regime have used the death penalty to suppress dissent, generate fear among the population and strengthen their control on rule.