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Over 20 Olympic medallists, mentors and other international athletes have put their names to a appeal calling for a end to the execution of a boxing titleholder and coach, who is facing execution in the nation.

Increasing Worldwide Condemnation

Amidst growing global condemnation over Iran’s expanding employment of capital punishment as a means of repression, the strongly worded letter censures the government's decision to maintain the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The athlete, 30, from the city in north-east Iran, was arrested for being involved in countrywide demonstrations in 2019 and charged of aiding an dissident organization. He has spent 60 months in prison, where he has been mistreated and confined in isolation.

“Athletics is meant to encourage faith, solidarity, and bravery,” the signatories wrote. “The capital punishment of a titleholder for his beliefs is a clear violation on these principles and a warning to every athlete who dares to voice opinions.

Record of Killing Sports Figures

The statement noted that Vafaei Sani’s circumstances was not an isolated one and highlighted the nation's past of executing sports champions for their beliefs, including a football captain, skipper of the national football team, and a volleyball captain, leader of the women's volleyball squad. In 2020, a wrestling champion, a young national wrestling champion, was put to death.

Further supporters to the statement comprise a yachting pioneer, who skippered the pioneering women's squad in a round-the-world competition and was the initial female to be awarded a prestigious sailing award; the ex- skipper of the national squad an athlete; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the Iranian squad for the international competition.

Arrest and Flawed Legal Process

The athlete was taken into custody in March 2020. The charges against him comprised “causing deterioration on Earth through incendiarism and ruin of public property”. His ruling has been annulled multiple times but on October 4 it was upheld on the third occasion. His trial was criticized as “deeply biased” by advocates and organizations.

Call to UN

The call to halt the athlete's capital punishment is subsequent to a 2023 statement to the United Nations official for freedoms, signed by over a hundred rights specialists and organizations, calling for measures to stop the competitor's death.

Execution Crisis

According to reports, there is an “execution crisis in the nation, which has reached alarming dimensions”. In 2023, authorities put to death at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a forty-eight percent surge on the previous year. In the prior period, records showed nine hundred seventy-two executions, constituting the maximum count since 2015. In excess of 800 people have been put to death so far in 2025.

Activists and opponents are focus, notably in the aftermath of the 2022 protests. Specialists say the Iranian authorities have used the capital punishment to stifle dissent, generate apprehension among the public and reinforce their grip on rule.