🔗 Share this article

More than two dozen Olympic champions, trainers and additional international athletes have put their names to a letter calling for a stop to the death penalty of a champion boxer and trainer, who is on death row in the nation.

Increasing International Outrage

Amid growing global condemnation over the nation's increasing application of executions as a means of repression, the forcefully phrased appeal denounces the Iranian regime's ruling to uphold the death sentence of the boxing champion.

Vafaei Sani, thirty, from the city in north-east Iran, was taken into custody for taking part in nationwide protests in the year 2019 and accused of supporting an resistance movement. He has endured 60 months in prison, where he has been abused and confined in solitary confinement.

“Athletics is meant to encourage optimism, unity, and courage,” the signatories stated. “The death penalty of a titleholder for his beliefs is a direct assault on these principles and a warning to every athlete who dares to speak out.

History of Executing Athletes

The statement said that the athlete's situation was part of a pattern and emphasized the nation's history of putting to death sports champions for their beliefs, such as a football captain, skipper of the soccer squad, and a women's sports leader, captain of the national women’s volleyball team. In two thousand twenty, Navid Afkari, a young Iranian competitor, was also executed.

Additional signatories to the appeal consist of Tracy Edwards, who led the inaugural all-female crew in a international sailing event and was the first woman to earn a renowned sailing award; the ex- leader of the soccer side Craig Foster; and a sports figure, who was in the country's selection for the 1978 World Cup.

Apprehension and Flawed Legal Process

The athlete was taken into custody in the spring of 2020. The charges against him included “promoting decay on Earth through arson and damage of state assets”. His ruling has been overturned on two occasions but on 4 October it was maintained on the third attempt. His court case was denounced as “highly unjust” by rights defenders and organizations.

Call to UN

The urging to prevent Vafaei Sani’s capital punishment follows a previous appeal to the United Nations official for rights, backed by over one hundred rights specialists and groups, urging measures to stop the competitor's death.

Execution Crisis

Based on reports, there is an “death penalty surge in the country, which has achieved horrific proportions”. In the year 2023, officials put to death at least over 850 people – a forty-eight percent surge on the previous year. The year before, statistics showed nine hundred seventy-two executions, marking the peak figure since 2015. Over eight hundred people have been executed so far in 2025.

Political prisoners and dissidents are targets, notably in the aftermath of the the year 2022 protests. Experts say the Iranian authorities have employed the executions to suppress dissent, create anxiety among the population and strengthen their control on rule.