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More than twenty Olympic champions, mentors and further global sports figures have endorsed a appeal demanding a end to the capital punishment of a boxing titleholder and coach, who is sentenced to die in Iran.

Growing Worldwide Condemnation

Amid growing worldwide anger over the country's increasing application of executions as a means of oppression, the powerfully expressed letter denounces the Iranian regime's ruling to confirm the death sentence of the boxing champion.

The athlete, thirty, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was arrested for being involved in nationwide protests in 2019 and charged of backing an opposition group. He has passed half a decade in prison, where he has been tortured and kept in isolation.

“Competition is meant to encourage optimism, solidarity, and courage,” the endorsers wrote. “The execution of a titleholder for his opinions is a direct assault on these values and a caution to every athlete who attempts to speak out.

Record of Executing Athletes

The statement said that Vafaei Sani’s situation was not an isolated one and underscored Iran’s past of executing competitors for their views, including Habib Khabiri, captain of the national football team, and a volleyball captain, leader of the women's volleyball squad. In 2020, an athlete, a young Iranian competitor, was put to death.

Further supporters to the appeal include a sailing champion, who captained the first female-only team in a global yacht race and was the initial female to receive a renowned yachting trophy; the ex- skipper of the national squad an athlete; and a sports figure, who was in the national team for the global tournament.

Detention and Flawed Legal Process

The boxer was taken into custody in the spring of 2020. The charges against him comprised “spreading corruption on Earth through arson and destruction of government belongings”. His verdict has been annulled multiple times but on 4 October it was maintained on the latest review. His court case was denounced as “highly unjust” by human rights activists and bodies.

Call to International Body

The appeal to halt the boxer's execution comes after a previous letter to the UN high commissioner for human rights, endorsed by over one hundred advocates and organizations, demanding measures to avert the sports figure's death.

Execution Crisis

According to findings, there is an “death penalty surge in the nation, which has reached shocking proportions”. In two thousand twenty-three, authorities executed at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a forty-eight percent rise on 2022. Last year, statistics showed nearly a thousand capital punishments, representing the peak figure since 2015. In excess of 800 people have been sentenced so far in the current year.

Political prisoners and opponents are targets, notably in the aftermath of the the year 2022 demonstrations. Experts say the Iranian authorities have employed the death penalty to stifle dissent, instil anxiety among the population and strengthen their grip on rule.