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More than twenty Olympic champions, trainers and further world-class competitors have signed a letter demanding a halt to the death penalty of a boxing titleholder and coach, who is on death row in the nation.

Growing International Outrage

Amidst rising global condemnation over the country's expanding employment of capital punishment as a means of repression, the strongly worded appeal condemns the government's ruling to confirm the capital punishment of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The athlete, thirty, from the city in the northern province, was arrested for participating in nationwide protests in two thousand nineteen and accused of aiding an resistance movement. He has endured 60 months in prison, where he has been mistreated and confined in seclusion.

“Competition is meant to inspire hope, solidarity, and fortitude,” the endorsers wrote. “The execution of a winner for his political views is a direct assault on these principles and a caution to every athlete who dares to speak out.

Record of Killing Competitors

The letter said that Vafaei Sani’s situation was not unique and underscored Iran’s past of putting to death sports champions for their views, for example a national team leader, skipper of the soccer squad, and a women's sports leader, captain of the women's volleyball squad. In the year 2020, a wrestling champion, a young national sports titleholder, faced the death penalty.

Additional endorsers to the statement comprise Tracy Edwards, who captained the pioneering women's squad in a global yacht race and was the pioneering lady to earn a esteemed nautical honor; the ex- skipper of the Australian football team a sports advocate; and a footballer, who was in the national team for the international competition.

Arrest and Flawed Legal Process

The boxer was detained in the spring of 2020. The allegations against him entailed “spreading corruption on Earth through incendiarism and destruction of public property”. His sentence has been reversed on two occasions but on 4 October it was upheld on the latest review. His trial was denounced as “grossly unfair” by advocates and organizations.

Urging to United Nations

The call to stop the boxer's capital punishment comes after a earlier letter to the United Nations official for rights, endorsed by in excess of 100 advocates and organizations, calling for intervention to stop the athlete’s death.

Death Penalty Surge

Based on data, there is an “death penalty surge in the country, which has achieved alarming proportions”. In 2023, the government put to death at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a forty-eight percent increase on 2022. The year before, records showed nearly a thousand capital punishments, marking the peak figure since the year 2015. Over eight hundred people have been executed so far in 2025.

Activists and protesters are targets, particularly in the wake of the 2022's protests. Specialists say the government have employed the executions to stifle protest, generate anxiety among the population and reinforce their control on rule.