🔗 Share this article

In excess of two dozen Olympic champions, trainers and additional world-class competitors have put their names to a statement demanding a end to the execution of a champion boxer and trainer, who is on death row in the nation.

Increasing Worldwide Condemnation

Amidst increasing worldwide anger over the country's expanding employment of executions as a instrument of repression, the powerfully expressed appeal condemns the authorities's verdict to maintain the execution order of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The boxer, thirty, from the city in north-east Iran, was taken into custody for being involved in countrywide demonstrations in the year 2019 and charged of supporting an opposition group. He has passed five years in prison, where he has been tortured and held in solitary confinement.

“Sport is designed to promote hope, solidarity, and fortitude,” the supporters expressed. “The death penalty of a champion for his beliefs is a clear violation on these principles and a warning to all sportspeople who dares to voice opinions.

Record of Putting to Death Competitors

The statement said that the athlete's case was not an isolated one and underscored the nation's past of putting to death competitors for their views, for example a national team leader, leader of the soccer squad, and a volleyball captain, captain of the female volleyball side. In 2020, Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old Iranian competitor, faced the death penalty.

Additional endorsers to the appeal include a sailing champion, who captained the first women's squad in a international sailing event and was the initial female to receive a prestigious nautical honor; the former skipper of the Australian football team a sports advocate; and a footballer, who was in the country's selection for the global tournament.

Arrest and Unfair Trial

The athlete was taken into custody in March 2020. The allegations against him entailed “promoting decay on Earth through incendiarism and destruction of state assets”. His verdict has been overturned twice but on the fourth of October it was maintained on the third attempt. His legal proceedings was criticized as “deeply biased” by advocates and bodies.

Urging to United Nations

The appeal to halt Vafaei Sani’s capital punishment follows a 2023 appeal to the United Nations official for rights, endorsed by in excess of one hundred advocates and entities, demanding measures to prevent the sports figure's execution.

Execution Crisis

According to reports, there is an “death penalty surge in the country, which has achieved horrific proportions”. In two thousand twenty-three, authorities sentenced at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a forty-eight percent increase on 2022. In the prior period, data showed 972 capital punishments, constituting the highest number since the year 2015. Over hundreds of people have been executed so far in 2025.

Political prisoners and protesters are focus, particularly in the aftermath of the 2022's demonstrations. Specialists say the Iranian authorities have employed the death penalty to stifle opposition, generate anxiety among the population and reinforce their hold on power.