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Over two dozen Olympic medal winners, mentors and further international athletes have endorsed a statement demanding a stop to the capital punishment of a boxing titleholder and trainer, who is on death row in the nation.

Increasing Global Anger

During rising international outrage over the nation's expanding employment of capital punishment as a instrument of oppression, the strongly worded appeal condemns the authorities's verdict to maintain the execution order of the athlete.

Vafaei Sani, thirty, from the city in the northern province, was arrested for taking part in countrywide demonstrations in 2019 and accused of backing an dissident organization. He has spent 60 months in incarceration, where he has been mistreated and held in solitary confinement.

“Sport is meant to encourage hope, solidarity, and bravery,” the endorsers stated. “The execution of a titleholder for his opinions is a blatant attack on these principles and a caution to every athlete who dares to speak out.

Record of Killing Sports Figures

The statement said that the boxer's circumstances was part of a pattern and emphasized the nation's past of sentencing to death athletes for their convictions, for example Habib Khabiri, leader of the soccer squad, and a volleyball captain, captain of the female volleyball side. In 2020, an athlete, a 27-year-old national sports titleholder, was put to death.

Additional signatories to the letter comprise a sailing champion, who captained the pioneering women's squad in a international sailing event and was the initial female to be awarded a renowned yachting trophy; the ex- leader of the national squad Craig Foster; and a sports figure, who was in the Iranian squad for the global tournament.

Detention and Unjust Proceedings

The athlete was detained in the spring of 2020. The charges against him included “spreading corruption on Earth through arson and ruin of state assets”. His verdict has been annulled twice but on 4 October it was upheld on the third occasion. His trial was condemned as “deeply biased” by human rights activists and bodies.

Call to UN

The call to halt the boxer's execution comes after a 2023 statement to the UN high commissioner for rights, signed by over one hundred rights specialists and entities, urging intervention to prevent the competitor's death.

Death Penalty Surge

Based on findings, there is an “execution crisis in Iran, which has attained horrific proportions”. In the year 2023, officials executed at least over 850 people – a nearly half increase on 2022. Last year, statistics showed nine hundred seventy-two capital punishments, representing the peak figure since two thousand fifteen. Over eight hundred people have been executed so far in 2025.

Activists and protesters are focus, particularly in the aftermath of the 2022's protests. Experts say the government have utilized the executions to quell dissent, instil apprehension among the population and tighten their grip on power.