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Over 20 Olympic medallists, trainers and additional world-class competitors have signed a letter demanding a halt to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and instructor, who is on death row in Iran.

Growing Global Anger

Amid increasing worldwide anger over Iran’s increasing application of capital punishment as a instrument of suppression, the strongly worded statement denounces the government's ruling to maintain the death sentence of the athlete.

Vafaei Sani, 30, from Mashhad in the northern province, was detained for participating in nationwide protests in two thousand nineteen and accused of aiding an dissident organization. He has spent five years in prison, where he has been abused and confined in solitary confinement.

“Competition is intended to promote faith, unity, and courage,” the endorsers stated. “The death penalty of a champion for his beliefs is a direct assault on these principles and a caution to all sportspeople who dares to voice opinions.

Record of Killing Competitors

The statement pointed out that Vafaei Sani’s situation was part of a pattern and underscored the country's past of sentencing to death competitors for their views, for example a national team leader, leader of the football side, and a women's sports leader, captain of the women's volleyball squad. In the year 2020, Navid Afkari, a young national wrestling champion, faced the death penalty.

Further supporters to the letter include Tracy Edwards, who led the pioneering women's squad in a international sailing event and was the initial female to earn a prestigious nautical honor; the former skipper of the national squad Craig Foster; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the country's selection for the 1978 World Cup.

Apprehension and Unjust Proceedings

Vafaei Sani was arrested in March 2020. The accusations against him entailed “causing deterioration on Earth through fire-setting and damage of public property”. His verdict has been overturned multiple times but on the fourth of October it was maintained on the latest review. His court case was criticized as “grossly unfair” by advocates and organizations.

Urging to International Body

The call to halt Vafaei Sani’s capital punishment comes after a previous statement to the global human rights chief for human rights, signed by more than 100 human rights experts and organizations, urging intervention to prevent the athlete’s execution.

Death Penalty Surge

Based on data, there is an “death penalty surge in the nation, which has achieved shocking proportions”. In two thousand twenty-three, authorities executed at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a forty-eight percent increase on 2022. Last year, data showed nearly a thousand deaths, representing the peak figure since 2015. In excess of hundreds of people have been executed so far in 2025.

Political prisoners and protesters are focus, notably in the wake of the the year 2022 uprising. Specialists say the government have employed the capital punishment to quell dissent, create anxiety among the citizenry and reinforce their control on authority.