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More than 20 Olympic champions, trainers and other global sports figures have signed a letter calling for a stop to the death penalty of a boxing champion and trainer, who is on death row in Iran.

Growing Global Anger

Amid rising international outrage over Iran’s expanding employment of the death penalty as a tool of suppression, the strongly worded statement condemns the government's ruling to confirm the execution order of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

Vafaei Sani, three decades old, from the city in the northeastern region, was taken into custody for participating in countrywide demonstrations in the year 2019 and indicted of supporting an dissident organization. He has passed five years in prison, where he has been abused and confined in solitary confinement.

“Athletics is designed to promote faith, unity, and courage,” the supporters stated. “The capital punishment of a champion for his political views is a blatant attack on these values and a caution to all sportspeople who attempts to voice opinions.

Record of Executing Sports Figures

The statement pointed out that the athlete's case was not an isolated one and emphasized Iran’s past of putting to death athletes for their convictions, including Habib Khabiri, leader of the national football team, and a volleyball captain, captain of the female volleyball side. In two thousand twenty, an athlete, a 27-year-old national wrestling champion, faced the death penalty.

Other endorsers to the statement comprise a sailing champion, who captained the pioneering female-only team in a round-the-world competition and was the first woman to be awarded a prestigious sailing award; the previous skipper of the Australian football team an athlete; and a sports figure, who was in the country's selection for the global tournament.

Detention and Unjust Proceedings

The boxer was arrested in March 2020. The accusations against him comprised “spreading corruption on Earth through fire-setting and ruin of government belongings”. His sentence has been reversed twice but on 4 October it was upheld on the third occasion. His legal proceedings was denounced as “grossly unfair” by rights defenders and organizations.

Call to United Nations

The call to halt the boxer's capital punishment is subsequent to a earlier letter to the global human rights chief for freedoms, endorsed by more than 100 human rights experts and organizations, demanding action to stop the athlete’s capital punishment.

Death Penalty Surge

As per reports, there is an “capital punishment escalation in Iran, which has achieved shocking dimensions”. In 2023, authorities put to death at least over 850 people – a forty-eight percent rise on 2022. Last year, records showed nearly a thousand capital punishments, constituting the peak figure since 2015. More than hundreds of people have been put to death so far in the current year.

Dissidents and opponents are targets, notably in the aftermath of the the year 2022 uprising. Specialists say the government have used the death penalty to quell opposition, instil fear among the public and strengthen their grip on power.