🔗 Share this article

Over twenty Olympic medallists, coaches and additional world-class competitors have signed a appeal urging a stop to the capital punishment of a boxing champion and coach, who is sentenced to die in the country.

Growing Global Anger

Amidst increasing global condemnation over Iran’s expanding employment of capital punishment as a tool of oppression, the forcefully phrased statement condemns the authorities's ruling to uphold the death sentence of the boxing champion.

Vafaei Sani, three decades old, from the city in the northern province, was arrested for participating in nationwide protests in the year 2019 and indicted of supporting an resistance movement. He has endured half a decade in incarceration, where he has been mistreated and confined in solitary confinement.

“Athletics is meant to inspire hope, unity, and fortitude,” the supporters expressed. “The capital punishment of a winner for his beliefs is a blatant attack on these values and a warning to any competitor who attempts to speak out.

Record of Putting to Death Sports Figures

The statement noted that the athlete's situation was not unique and highlighted the country's past of putting to death sports champions for their beliefs, such as a football captain, skipper of the national football team, and a women's sports leader, leader of the national women’s volleyball team. In two thousand twenty, a wrestling champion, a 27-year Iranian wrestling champion, was also executed.

Other endorsers to the statement comprise a sailing champion, who skippered the first women's squad in a global yacht race and was the first woman to earn a esteemed nautical honor; the previous leader of the soccer side Craig Foster; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the Iranian squad for the international competition.

Detention and Unfair Trial

The boxer was arrested in early 2020. The allegations against him comprised “causing deterioration on Earth through arson and damage of state assets”. His sentence has been reversed twice but on 4 October it was upheld on the third attempt. His court case was denounced as “deeply biased” by human rights activists and bodies.

Urging to International Body

The appeal to prevent Vafaei Sani’s execution comes after a earlier appeal to the UN high commissioner for freedoms, signed by over one hundred advocates and entities, calling for action to avert the athlete’s execution.

Execution Crisis

As per findings, there is an “death penalty surge in the country, which has reached shocking proportions”. In 2023, the government sentenced at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a nearly half rise on 2022. In the prior period, data showed nine hundred seventy-two capital punishments, representing the maximum count since the year 2015. Over eight hundred people have been executed so far in 2025.

Political prisoners and protesters are victims, particularly in the aftermath of the 2022's demonstrations. Specialists say the government have utilized the death penalty to suppress dissent, instil anxiety among the citizenry and tighten their hold on rule.