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Over 20 Olympic medal winners, coaches and further global sports figures have endorsed a appeal demanding a stop to the capital punishment of a boxing titleholder and coach, who is on death row in the nation.

Increasing Global Anger

Amidst increasing international outrage over the country's escalating use of executions as a means of repression, the powerfully expressed appeal condemns the government's ruling to maintain the execution order of the boxing champion.

Vafaei Sani, thirty, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was detained for participating in national uprisings in the year 2019 and indicted of supporting an opposition group. He has spent half a decade in detention, where he has been abused and held in solitary confinement.

“Athletics is designed to promote hope, unity, and courage,” the endorsers expressed. “The death penalty of a titleholder for his beliefs is a blatant attack on these principles and a warning to every athlete who attempts to speak out.

Pattern of Executing Sports Figures

The letter said that Vafaei Sani’s situation was part of a pattern and underscored the nation's past of executing sports champions for their convictions, for example a national team leader, captain of the national football team, and Fourouzan Abdi, leader of the women's volleyball squad. In 2020, a wrestling champion, a 27-year national sports titleholder, was also executed.

Additional supporters to the appeal include a yachting pioneer, who skippered the pioneering all-female crew in a global yacht race and was the first woman to be awarded a prestigious yachting trophy; the previous skipper of the Australian football team a sports advocate; and a sports figure, who was in the national team for the 1978 World Cup.

Apprehension and Unjust Proceedings

Vafaei Sani was detained in March 2020. The accusations against him comprised “spreading corruption on Earth through incendiarism and damage of government belongings”. His ruling has been reversed multiple times but on October 4 it was upheld on the third occasion. His court case was denounced as “deeply biased” by advocates and organizations.

Appeal to UN

The call to prevent Vafaei Sani’s death sentence is subsequent to a earlier appeal to the UN high commissioner for freedoms, endorsed by in excess of 100 rights specialists and entities, urging intervention to stop the competitor's execution.

Capital Punishment Escalation

According to data, there is an “capital punishment escalation in Iran, which has reached shocking dimensions”. In 2023, the government executed at least over 850 people – a 48% surge on 2022. The year before, data showed nine hundred seventy-two deaths, constituting the maximum count since the year 2015. Over 800 people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Activists and dissidents are victims, especially in the aftermath of the the year 2022 protests. Experts say the regime have utilized the capital punishment to quell opposition, instil anxiety among the citizenry and reinforce their hold on power.