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More than 20 Olympic medal winners, coaches and other global sports figures have put their names to a letter urging a end to the death penalty of a champion boxer and coach, who is on death row in Iran.

Growing International Outrage

Amidst increasing worldwide anger over Iran’s escalating use of the death penalty as a tool of oppression, the strongly worded statement denounces the government's ruling to uphold the death sentence of the athlete.

The athlete, 30, from the city in the northern province, was arrested for taking part in countrywide demonstrations in two thousand nineteen and indicted of aiding an resistance movement. He has passed 60 months in prison, where he has been abused and held in isolation.

“Competition is designed to promote hope, unity, and fortitude,” the supporters expressed. “The capital punishment of a winner for his beliefs is a direct assault on these principles and a caution to any competitor who dares to express dissent.

Pattern of Killing Athletes

The appeal noted that Vafaei Sani’s circumstances was not unique and highlighted Iran’s record of executing sports champions for their views, including Habib Khabiri, leader of the football side, and Fourouzan Abdi, skipper of the women's volleyball squad. In two thousand twenty, Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old national wrestling champion, was also executed.

Additional supporters to the statement include Tracy Edwards, who skippered the first all-female crew in a international sailing event and was the first woman to receive a prestigious nautical honor; the former leader of the national squad an athlete; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the national team for the global tournament.

Apprehension and Unfair Trial

The athlete was arrested in early 2020. The accusations against him comprised “promoting decay on Earth through incendiarism and ruin of state assets”. His ruling has been reversed twice but on October 4 it was upheld on the latest review. His court case was denounced as “deeply biased” by rights defenders and organizations.

Call to International Body

The appeal to halt Vafaei Sani’s capital punishment comes after a earlier letter to the United Nations official for freedoms, endorsed by more than a hundred human rights experts and groups, demanding intervention to avert the sports figure's death.

Execution Crisis

As per data, there is an “death penalty surge in the country, which has attained shocking proportions”. In two thousand twenty-three, authorities sentenced at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a forty-eight percent increase on the previous year. The year before, data showed nine hundred seventy-two executions, representing the maximum count since 2015. In excess of 800 people have been executed so far in the current year.

Political prisoners and dissidents are victims, especially in the wake of the 2022 uprising. Specialists say the Iranian authorities have used the capital punishment to stifle dissent, instil fear among the population and strengthen their control on power.