🔗 Share this article Elite Athletes Appeal on Iran to Halt Execution of Boxing Champion More than twenty Olympic champions, coaches and further world-class competitors have endorsed a statement urging a stop to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and instructor, who is sentenced to die in Iran. Increasing International Outrage During increasing worldwide anger over the country's expanding employment of the death penalty as a instrument of suppression, the forcefully phrased letter denounces the authorities's verdict to confirm the execution order of the athlete. Vafaei Sani, 30, from Mashhad in the northern province, was detained for participating in national uprisings in the year 2019 and charged of supporting an resistance movement. He has spent five years in incarceration, where he has been abused and confined in isolation. “Athletics is designed to promote hope, togetherness, and courage,” the supporters wrote. “The death penalty of a winner for his political views is a direct assault on these values and a admonition to any competitor who ventures to voice opinions. Record of Executing Sports Figures The statement said that the athlete's case was part of a pattern and highlighted the nation's record of putting to death competitors for their views, such as a national team leader, skipper of the soccer squad, and a women's sports leader, leader of the female volleyball side. In 2020, Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old national competitor, was also executed. Additional endorsers to the appeal comprise a yachting pioneer, who skippered the inaugural all-female crew in a round-the-world competition and was the pioneering lady to be awarded a esteemed nautical honor; the previous captain of the Australian football team an athlete; and a footballer, who was in the country's selection for the 1978 World Cup. Arrest and Unfair Trial Vafaei Sani was taken into custody in early 2020. The accusations against him entailed “spreading corruption on Earth through arson and destruction of state assets”. His verdict has been reversed multiple times but on 4 October it was confirmed on the third attempt. His court case was condemned as “grossly unfair” by human rights activists and bodies. Urging to UN The urging to prevent the athlete's capital punishment is subsequent to a previous letter to the United Nations official for rights, endorsed by more than one hundred advocates and organizations, demanding action to stop the sports figure's death. Capital Punishment Escalation According to findings, there is an “capital punishment escalation in the country, which has attained shocking dimensions”. In 2023, the government put to death at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a nearly half rise on 2022. The year before, data showed 972 executions, constituting the highest number since two thousand fifteen. Over hundreds of people have been sentenced so far in 2025. Political prisoners and dissidents are victims, notably in the wake of the 2022 demonstrations. Specialists say the government have employed the death penalty to stifle dissent, create anxiety among the public and reinforce their grip on rule.