🔗 Share this article

More than 20 Olympic medallists, coaches and other international athletes have put their names to a statement urging a stop to the capital punishment of a boxing titleholder and trainer, who is on death row in the nation.

Growing Worldwide Condemnation

Amid growing global condemnation over Iran’s escalating use of capital punishment as a tool of oppression, the forcefully phrased appeal condemns the Iranian regime's decision to uphold the capital punishment of the athlete.

Vafaei Sani, thirty, from the city in the northern province, was arrested for taking part in nationwide protests in two thousand nineteen and indicted of supporting an opposition group. He has passed 60 months in incarceration, where he has been abused and confined in seclusion.

“Sport is intended to inspire hope, togetherness, and bravery,” the endorsers stated. “The execution of a titleholder for his political views is a blatant attack on these values and a warning to any competitor who attempts to express dissent.

History of Executing Athletes

The letter said that the boxer's case was not an isolated one and emphasized Iran’s history of executing athletes for their views, including a football captain, captain of the national football team, and a volleyball captain, captain of the national women’s volleyball team. In 2020, a wrestling champion, a 27-year national competitor, was put to death.

Further endorsers to the statement include a yachting pioneer, who skippered the inaugural female-only team in a round-the-world competition and was the pioneering lady to earn a renowned nautical honor; the ex- skipper of the soccer side Craig Foster; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the Iranian squad for the global tournament.

Detention and Unjust Proceedings

The athlete was taken into custody in early 2020. The accusations against him entailed “spreading corruption on Earth through fire-setting and destruction of government belongings”. His ruling has been annulled multiple times but on October 4 it was upheld on the latest review. His trial was denounced as “deeply biased” by rights defenders and groups.

Urging to International Body

The urging to prevent the athlete's death sentence comes after a 2023 letter to the global human rights chief for freedoms, backed by more than a hundred human rights experts and entities, calling for intervention to prevent the competitor's execution.

Death Penalty Surge

According to findings, there is an “execution crisis in the nation, which has achieved horrific levels”. In 2023, officials sentenced at least 853 people – a forty-eight percent increase on 2022. The year before, data showed nine hundred seventy-two capital punishments, constituting the maximum count since the year 2015. Over hundreds of people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Political prisoners and opponents are targets, especially in the wake of the the year 2022 uprising. Specialists say the government have used the death penalty to stifle opposition, generate fear among the population and reinforce their grip on rule.