🔗 Share this article

More than twenty Olympic champions, trainers and other global sports figures have put their names to a letter urging a halt to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and trainer, who is sentenced to die in Iran.

Increasing Global Anger

During increasing international outrage over the nation's expanding employment of the death penalty as a means of suppression, the powerfully expressed statement denounces the authorities's verdict to confirm the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The athlete, three decades old, from the city in the northeastern region, was detained for taking part in countrywide demonstrations in the year 2019 and charged of backing an opposition group. He has spent five years in prison, where he has been abused and kept in isolation.

“Competition is meant to promote hope, unity, and bravery,” the supporters expressed. “The capital punishment of a winner for his beliefs is a clear violation on these principles and a caution to all sportspeople who ventures to speak out.

Pattern of Executing Competitors

The appeal said that Vafaei Sani’s case was not an isolated one and underscored Iran’s past of sentencing to death competitors for their beliefs, including Habib Khabiri, skipper of the soccer squad, and a volleyball captain, captain of the women's volleyball squad. In 2020, Navid Afkari, a young national competitor, was put to death.

Further signatories to the letter include Tracy Edwards, who captained the inaugural all-female crew in a international sailing event and was the pioneering lady to be awarded a renowned nautical honor; the ex- captain of the national squad Craig Foster; and a footballer, who was in the country's selection for the global tournament.

Detention and Unfair Trial

Vafaei Sani was taken into custody in early 2020. The accusations against him included “causing deterioration on Earth through arson and ruin of government belongings”. His ruling has been reversed twice but on 4 October it was upheld on the third occasion. His trial was condemned as “grossly unfair” by human rights activists and organizations.

Appeal to United Nations

The call to halt the boxer's execution comes after a 2023 appeal to the United Nations official for human rights, endorsed by more than one hundred human rights experts and organizations, calling for intervention to prevent the athlete’s death.

Capital Punishment Escalation

As per data, there is an “execution crisis in the nation, which has reached shocking levels”. In the year 2023, authorities sentenced at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a nearly half increase on the previous year. Last year, statistics showed 972 executions, marking the peak figure since 2015. More than hundreds of people have been executed so far in 2025.

Dissidents and protesters are targets, notably in the aftermath of the 2022's demonstrations. Experts say the government have employed the death penalty to quell opposition, generate anxiety among the population and tighten their hold on power.