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In excess of 20 Olympic medal winners, trainers and additional world-class competitors have signed a statement calling for a end to the death penalty of a boxing champion and instructor, who is facing execution in Iran.

Growing Worldwide Condemnation

Amidst growing worldwide anger over Iran’s increasing application of the death penalty as a instrument of repression, the strongly worded appeal condemns the government's decision to confirm the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

Vafaei Sani, three decades old, from the city in the northeastern region, was detained for taking part in nationwide protests in the year 2019 and indicted of backing an resistance movement. He has spent 60 months in detention, where he has been mistreated and kept in isolation.

“Sport is designed to inspire optimism, togetherness, and courage,” the endorsers stated. “The capital punishment of a champion for his beliefs is a blatant attack on these values and a caution to any competitor who dares to express dissent.

Record of Executing Competitors

The letter said that the athlete's case was part of a pattern and emphasized the nation's past of putting to death sports champions for their beliefs, including a football captain, captain of the national football team, and a volleyball captain, skipper of the female volleyball side. In 2020, Navid Afkari, a young national sports titleholder, was put to death.

Other supporters to the letter consist of Tracy Edwards, who captained the inaugural all-female crew in a round-the-world competition and was the initial female to be awarded a esteemed yachting trophy; the ex- skipper of the national squad a sports advocate; and a footballer, who was in the national team for the global tournament.

Detention and Flawed Legal Process

The athlete was taken into custody in early 2020. The allegations against him included “causing deterioration on Earth through arson and ruin of public property”. His verdict has been overturned twice but on the fourth of October it was confirmed on the third occasion. His court case was denounced as “deeply biased” by rights defenders and groups.

Urging to International Body

The urging to prevent the boxer's capital punishment is subsequent to a earlier statement to the UN high commissioner for human rights, backed by in excess of a hundred human rights experts and organizations, urging intervention to stop the competitor's execution.

Execution Crisis

As per findings, there is an “capital punishment escalation in the nation, which has attained shocking dimensions”. In 2023, officials executed at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a forty-eight percent surge on the previous year. The year before, data showed nearly a thousand capital punishments, representing the maximum count since two thousand fifteen. Over eight hundred people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Activists and protesters are victims, notably in the wake of the the year 2022 demonstrations. Analysts say the regime have employed the capital punishment to suppress protest, instil fear among the public and reinforce their hold on authority.