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In excess of 20 Olympic champions, trainers and further international athletes have endorsed a letter urging a stop to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and coach, who is on death row in the country.

Escalating Global Anger

During rising global condemnation over the country's increasing application of capital punishment as a instrument of oppression, the strongly worded letter condemns the authorities's decision to maintain the execution order of the boxing champion.

Vafaei Sani, three decades old, from the city in north-east Iran, was detained for taking part in national uprisings in 2019 and indicted of backing an dissident organization. He has spent half a decade in incarceration, where he has been abused and held in solitary confinement.

“Athletics is designed to encourage hope, unity, and bravery,” the endorsers wrote. “The execution of a winner for his opinions is a clear violation on these principles and a caution to all sportspeople who ventures to express dissent.

Pattern of Putting to Death Athletes

The letter pointed out that Vafaei Sani’s situation was part of a pattern and underscored Iran’s past of putting to death competitors for their views, such as a national team leader, skipper of the national football team, and Fourouzan Abdi, captain of the female volleyball side. In two thousand twenty, an athlete, a young Iranian sports titleholder, faced the death penalty.

Additional endorsers to the statement comprise a yachting pioneer, who captained the first women's squad in a round-the-world competition and was the pioneering lady to receive a esteemed yachting trophy; the former skipper of the soccer side Craig Foster; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the national team for the international competition.

Arrest and Unfair Trial

Vafaei Sani was detained in the spring of 2020. The charges against him comprised “spreading corruption on Earth through fire-setting and damage of public property”. His sentence has been reversed twice but on 4 October it was confirmed on the latest review. His trial was denounced as “grossly unfair” by rights defenders and groups.

Appeal to UN

The urging to halt Vafaei Sani’s capital punishment follows a earlier letter to the UN high commissioner for freedoms, signed by over a hundred rights specialists and organizations, demanding intervention to avert the athlete’s capital punishment.

Death Penalty Surge

According to findings, there is an “capital punishment escalation in the country, which has attained horrific levels”. In two thousand twenty-three, officials executed at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a nearly half surge on 2022. In the prior period, statistics showed nearly a thousand capital punishments, representing the highest number since two thousand fifteen. In excess of hundreds of people have been put to death so far in 2025.

Activists and protesters are victims, particularly in the wake of the the year 2022 protests. Specialists say the government have employed the death penalty to suppress dissent, generate fear among the citizenry and strengthen their hold on power.