🔗 Share this article

More than 20 Olympic medallists, mentors and additional world-class competitors have endorsed a appeal calling for a stop to the capital punishment of a boxing titleholder and coach, who is sentenced to die in the nation.

Growing Worldwide Condemnation

During increasing global condemnation over the nation's expanding employment of executions as a means of repression, the forcefully phrased statement censures the authorities's verdict to uphold the capital punishment of the athlete.

The boxer, three decades old, from the city in the northern province, was taken into custody for taking part in national uprisings in the year 2019 and indicted of supporting an resistance movement. He has passed five years in prison, where he has been abused and confined in solitary confinement.

“Sport is intended to encourage faith, unity, and bravery,” the signatories expressed. “The capital punishment of a titleholder for his opinions is a direct assault on these values and a admonition to every athlete who ventures to express dissent.

Record of Executing Sports Figures

The appeal noted that the athlete's case was part of a pattern and emphasized Iran’s past of executing competitors for their beliefs, such as a national team leader, skipper of the national football team, and a women's sports leader, leader of the women's volleyball squad. In the year 2020, an athlete, a young national sports titleholder, was also executed.

Further supporters to the letter consist of a yachting pioneer, who skippered the pioneering women's squad in a international sailing event and was the initial female to be awarded a prestigious sailing award; the former captain of the soccer side Craig Foster; and a footballer, who was in the country's selection for the international competition.

Detention and Flawed Legal Process

Vafaei Sani was arrested in the spring of 2020. The accusations against him included “causing deterioration on Earth through arson and damage of state assets”. His sentence has been reversed on two occasions but on 4 October it was maintained on the latest review. His court case was criticized as “grossly unfair” by human rights activists and bodies.

Appeal to UN

The appeal to prevent Vafaei Sani’s death sentence follows a previous statement to the United Nations official for human rights, signed by more than one hundred rights specialists and groups, urging intervention to prevent the athlete’s execution.

Execution Crisis

According to reports, there is an “capital punishment escalation in Iran, which has attained shocking proportions”. In two thousand twenty-three, authorities executed at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a 48% increase on the previous year. In the prior period, statistics showed nine hundred seventy-two executions, marking the peak figure since 2015. More than 800 people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Activists and opponents are targets, notably in the aftermath of the 2022's demonstrations. Analysts say the government have employed the death penalty to suppress opposition, create apprehension among the citizenry and tighten their grip on rule.