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Over two dozen Olympic medal winners, trainers and additional international athletes have put their names to a appeal calling for a halt to the death penalty of a boxing titleholder and trainer, who is on death row in the country.

Growing Worldwide Condemnation

Amidst growing global condemnation over the country's increasing application of capital punishment as a tool of suppression, the strongly worded letter condemns the authorities's ruling to maintain the capital punishment of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The boxer, thirty, from the city in the northeastern region, was detained for being involved in countrywide demonstrations in the year 2019 and charged of backing an dissident organization. He has spent five years in incarceration, where he has been tortured and kept in solitary confinement.

“Competition is designed to encourage hope, unity, and courage,” the endorsers stated. “The capital punishment of a winner for his beliefs is a blatant attack on these values and a admonition to any competitor who ventures to speak out.

Pattern of Killing Competitors

The appeal noted that the athlete's situation was part of a pattern and emphasized Iran’s history of sentencing to death competitors for their views, for example a football captain, captain of the football side, and a women's sports leader, captain of the national women’s volleyball team. In 2020, Navid Afkari, a young national competitor, was put to death.

Other supporters to the statement comprise a yachting pioneer, who led the inaugural female-only team in a round-the-world competition and was the first woman to earn a prestigious yachting trophy; the previous captain of the national squad a sports advocate; and a sports figure, who was in the country's selection for the international competition.

Arrest and Unjust Proceedings

The athlete was taken into custody in March 2020. The charges against him included “spreading corruption on Earth through fire-setting and damage of government belongings”. His sentence has been overturned twice but on the fourth of October it was maintained on the third occasion. His trial was condemned as “grossly unfair” by rights defenders and organizations.

Appeal to UN

The call to prevent the athlete's capital punishment is subsequent to a 2023 statement to the UN high commissioner for freedoms, signed by in excess of 100 advocates and organizations, demanding intervention to avert the athlete’s execution.

Death Penalty Surge

According to reports, there is an “death penalty surge in the nation, which has reached shocking levels”. In 2023, officials put to death at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a forty-eight percent rise on the previous year. The year before, statistics showed nearly a thousand deaths, constituting the highest number since two thousand fifteen. Over eight hundred people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Activists and dissidents are victims, especially in the wake of the the year 2022 protests. Specialists say the government have employed the executions to suppress opposition, instil fear among the public and strengthen their grip on rule.