🔗 Share this article

More than two dozen Olympic medallists, coaches and other world-class competitors have put their names to a appeal calling for a halt to the death penalty of a boxing titleholder and instructor, who is on death row in the country.

Increasing Worldwide Condemnation

During increasing international outrage over the country's increasing application of executions as a means of repression, the powerfully expressed letter denounces the government's verdict to confirm the capital punishment of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

Vafaei Sani, three decades old, from Mashhad in the northern province, was taken into custody for participating in nationwide protests in the year 2019 and charged of backing an opposition group. He has spent 60 months in incarceration, where he has been tortured and confined in solitary confinement.

“Athletics is designed to encourage hope, unity, and courage,” the endorsers expressed. “The execution of a titleholder for his political views is a blatant attack on these ideals and a caution to any competitor who attempts to voice opinions.

Record of Killing Sports Figures

The appeal pointed out that the boxer's case was part of a pattern and highlighted the country's history of putting to death athletes for their views, including a national team leader, captain of the football side, and a volleyball captain, leader of the women's volleyball squad. In the year 2020, an athlete, a young national sports titleholder, was also executed.

Other signatories to the letter comprise a yachting pioneer, who skippered the first women's squad in a global yacht race and was the initial female to receive a renowned sailing award; the previous leader of the national squad an athlete; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the country's selection for the international competition.

Detention and Flawed Legal Process

The athlete was arrested in early 2020. The charges against him comprised “causing deterioration on Earth through incendiarism and ruin of government belongings”. His verdict has been reversed multiple times but on October 4 it was upheld on the third attempt. His court case was condemned as “deeply biased” by human rights activists and organizations.

Appeal to UN

The call to prevent Vafaei Sani’s execution is subsequent to a earlier letter to the United Nations official for rights, signed by over one hundred advocates and entities, demanding measures to prevent the athlete’s death.

Execution Crisis

Based on reports, there is an “execution crisis in the nation, which has achieved horrific dimensions”. In two thousand twenty-three, the government executed at least 853 people – a nearly half rise on 2022. The year before, statistics showed 972 capital punishments, marking the maximum count since two thousand fifteen. More than eight hundred people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Dissidents and protesters are victims, particularly in the aftermath of the 2022 uprising. Specialists say the government have employed the death penalty to quell opposition, generate apprehension among the population and reinforce their control on rule.