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In excess of twenty Olympic medal winners, trainers and further world-class competitors have endorsed a appeal demanding a end to the death penalty of a boxing champion and trainer, who is sentenced to die in the country.

Growing International Outrage

During rising worldwide anger over the country's expanding employment of the death penalty as a means of oppression, the powerfully expressed letter denounces the government's ruling to confirm the capital punishment of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The boxer, 30, from the city in north-east Iran, was detained for participating in nationwide protests in 2019 and charged of backing an dissident organization. He has spent 60 months in prison, where he has been mistreated and confined in solitary confinement.

“Competition is intended to inspire faith, solidarity, and fortitude,” the endorsers wrote. “The death penalty of a titleholder for his beliefs is a direct assault on these values and a admonition to any competitor who ventures to express dissent.

Pattern of Killing Competitors

The statement pointed out that Vafaei Sani’s situation was part of a pattern and highlighted the nation's past of sentencing to death athletes for their views, such as Habib Khabiri, skipper of the national football team, and a women's sports leader, skipper of the national women’s volleyball team. In 2020, Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old national competitor, was also executed.

Other signatories to the statement consist of a sailing champion, who captained the inaugural women's squad in a round-the-world competition and was the pioneering lady to be awarded a renowned nautical honor; the ex- captain of the national squad a sports advocate; and a footballer, who was in the Iranian squad for the international competition.

Detention and Unjust Proceedings

The athlete was taken into custody in March 2020. The accusations against him entailed “spreading corruption on Earth through incendiarism and ruin of state assets”. His ruling has been reversed twice but on October 4 it was confirmed on the third occasion. His trial was condemned as “highly unjust” by advocates and organizations.

Appeal to UN

The call to prevent Vafaei Sani’s capital punishment follows a 2023 appeal to the UN high commissioner for rights, endorsed by in excess of a hundred rights specialists and groups, urging measures to avert the sports figure's death.

Capital Punishment Escalation

According to data, there is an “death penalty surge in Iran, which has reached shocking levels”. In the year 2023, the government put to death at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a nearly half rise on the previous year. Last year, statistics showed 972 executions, constituting the peak figure since the year 2015. In excess of eight hundred people have been sentenced so far in the current year.

Political prisoners and dissidents are targets, notably in the wake of the 2022 demonstrations. Analysts say the regime have employed the executions to stifle opposition, create fear among the population and strengthen their hold on authority.