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More than two dozen Olympic champions, trainers and additional global sports figures have endorsed a letter demanding a halt to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and coach, who is on death row in the nation.

Escalating Worldwide Condemnation

Amid increasing global condemnation over Iran’s expanding employment of the death penalty as a means of repression, the forcefully phrased letter denounces the Iranian regime's ruling to confirm the capital punishment of the boxing champion.

Vafaei Sani, thirty, from the city in the northeastern region, was detained for being involved in national uprisings in two thousand nineteen and indicted of supporting an resistance movement. He has spent half a decade in incarceration, where he has been mistreated and held in solitary confinement.

“Competition is designed to inspire optimism, togetherness, and courage,” the endorsers stated. “The death penalty of a titleholder for his opinions is a blatant attack on these ideals and a warning to all sportspeople who dares to speak out.

History of Killing Competitors

The statement said that the boxer's case was not an isolated one and underscored the nation's record of sentencing to death athletes for their beliefs, for example Habib Khabiri, leader of the football side, and Fourouzan Abdi, captain of the female volleyball side. In 2020, an athlete, a young Iranian competitor, was put to death.

Other signatories to the statement include Tracy Edwards, who skippered the first all-female crew in a round-the-world competition and was the first woman to earn a renowned nautical honor; the former captain of the national squad Craig Foster; and a footballer, who was in the national team for the 1978 World Cup.

Detention and Flawed Legal Process

Vafaei Sani was taken into custody in the spring of 2020. The accusations against him entailed “spreading corruption on Earth through incendiarism and destruction of government belongings”. His sentence has been reversed on two occasions but on October 4 it was confirmed on the third attempt. His legal proceedings was criticized as “grossly unfair” by rights defenders and bodies.

Urging to International Body

The call to halt Vafaei Sani’s death sentence comes after a earlier letter to the United Nations official for rights, endorsed by in excess of 100 rights specialists and groups, urging action to avert the athlete’s execution.

Capital Punishment Escalation

As per data, there is an “capital punishment escalation in the country, which has reached shocking dimensions”. In the year 2023, the government put to death at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a 48% rise on 2022. The year before, data showed nine hundred seventy-two executions, constituting the peak figure since the year 2015. In excess of eight hundred people have been executed so far in 2025.

Activists and protesters are targets, especially in the wake of the 2022's protests. Specialists say the government have used the executions to quell protest, create apprehension among the population and strengthen their hold on authority.