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Over 20 Olympic medal winners, coaches and other global sports figures have put their names to a appeal urging a halt to the death penalty of a champion boxer and trainer, who is on death row in the nation.

Increasing Global Anger

Amidst rising international outrage over Iran’s expanding employment of the death penalty as a instrument of repression, the strongly worded appeal condemns the Iranian regime's ruling to maintain the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

Vafaei Sani, 30, from Mashhad in the northeastern region, was detained for participating in nationwide protests in two thousand nineteen and charged of backing an opposition group. He has passed half a decade in detention, where he has been abused and kept in solitary confinement.

“Sport is designed to inspire faith, unity, and bravery,” the endorsers stated. “The execution of a winner for his political views is a blatant attack on these principles and a admonition to every athlete who ventures to speak out.

Record of Putting to Death Sports Figures

The statement noted that Vafaei Sani’s situation was part of a pattern and emphasized the nation's record of executing athletes for their beliefs, including a football captain, leader of the national football team, and a women's sports leader, captain of the female volleyball side. In 2020, a wrestling champion, a 27-year Iranian wrestling champion, faced the death penalty.

Further endorsers to the letter consist of a yachting pioneer, who captained the inaugural women's squad in a international sailing event and was the initial female to receive a prestigious yachting trophy; the previous captain of the Australian football team an athlete; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the Iranian squad for the international competition.

Detention and Unjust Proceedings

Vafaei Sani was arrested in the spring of 2020. The allegations against him entailed “causing deterioration on Earth through incendiarism and ruin of state assets”. His ruling has been annulled twice but on 4 October it was confirmed on the third attempt. His trial was denounced as “grossly unfair” by human rights activists and bodies.

Urging to United Nations

The appeal to prevent the athlete's capital punishment is subsequent to a 2023 statement to the United Nations official for freedoms, endorsed by over a hundred rights specialists and entities, calling for intervention to prevent the athlete’s capital punishment.

Capital Punishment Escalation

Based on findings, there is an “execution crisis in Iran, which has reached alarming levels”. In two thousand twenty-three, the government executed at least over 850 people – a nearly half surge on 2022. The year before, records showed 972 deaths, constituting the maximum count since 2015. Over 800 people have been executed so far in 2025.

Activists and dissidents are victims, notably in the aftermath of the 2022's demonstrations. Experts say the government have utilized the capital punishment to quell protest, instil anxiety among the citizenry and strengthen their grip on rule.