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Over two dozen Olympic medal winners, mentors and additional world-class competitors have endorsed a letter urging a halt to the death penalty of a champion boxer and trainer, who is facing execution in Iran.

Growing Worldwide Condemnation

Amidst rising international outrage over Iran’s increasing application of executions as a means of oppression, the strongly worded letter denounces the government's ruling to maintain the capital punishment of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

Vafaei Sani, three decades old, from the city in north-east Iran, was detained for taking part in nationwide protests in 2019 and charged of backing an dissident organization. He has spent five years in detention, where he has been abused and kept in solitary confinement.

“Competition is intended to promote hope, unity, and courage,” the supporters wrote. “The death penalty of a champion for his opinions is a direct assault on these values and a warning to every athlete who dares to speak out.

History of Executing Sports Figures

The appeal said that the boxer's situation was part of a pattern and highlighted the country's past of sentencing to death competitors for their convictions, including a football captain, leader of the football side, and Fourouzan Abdi, skipper of the women's volleyball squad. In 2020, an athlete, a young national sports titleholder, was also executed.

Other supporters to the statement consist of a yachting pioneer, who skippered the first all-female crew in a round-the-world competition and was the pioneering lady to be awarded a esteemed yachting trophy; the former skipper of the soccer side Craig Foster; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the national team for the global tournament.

Arrest and Unfair Trial

The boxer was detained in March 2020. The accusations against him comprised “spreading corruption on Earth through arson and damage of state assets”. His ruling has been annulled multiple times but on 4 October it was confirmed on the third attempt. His trial was criticized as “grossly unfair” by advocates and organizations.

Appeal to International Body

The call to stop Vafaei Sani’s death sentence comes after a previous letter to the UN high commissioner for human rights, backed by in excess of 100 human rights experts and entities, calling for measures to prevent the competitor's execution.

Capital Punishment Escalation

Based on findings, there is an “capital punishment escalation in Iran, which has attained horrific proportions”. In two thousand twenty-three, officials sentenced at least over 850 people – a nearly half rise on 2022. The year before, records showed nearly a thousand deaths, constituting the peak figure since two thousand fifteen. More than eight hundred people have been executed so far in the current year.

Political prisoners and opponents are victims, particularly in the wake of the 2022's protests. Experts say the regime have utilized the executions to quell opposition, generate anxiety among the public and tighten their control on authority.