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More than 20 Olympic champions, mentors and additional international athletes have put their names to a statement calling for a stop to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and trainer, who is on death row in the country.

Increasing Global Anger

Amidst rising global condemnation over the nation's expanding employment of the death penalty as a tool of suppression, the powerfully expressed letter censures the authorities's verdict to maintain the capital punishment of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The athlete, 30, from the city in north-east Iran, was arrested for being involved in nationwide protests in the year 2019 and charged of aiding an dissident organization. He has endured five years in prison, where he has been abused and kept in isolation.

“Athletics is meant to promote faith, togetherness, and courage,” the supporters expressed. “The death penalty of a champion for his opinions is a blatant attack on these principles and a admonition to any competitor who ventures to voice opinions.

Record of Putting to Death Athletes

The appeal pointed out that the athlete's situation was not unique and emphasized the nation's past of sentencing to death sports champions for their beliefs, for example Habib Khabiri, leader of the national football team, and a volleyball captain, skipper of the women's volleyball squad. In the year 2020, an athlete, a young national wrestling champion, faced the death penalty.

Additional signatories to the letter comprise a sailing champion, who skippered the inaugural female-only team in a international sailing event and was the first woman to earn a renowned sailing award; the previous captain of the soccer side a sports advocate; and a footballer, who was in the national team for the international competition.

Detention and Unfair Trial

The boxer was taken into custody in the spring of 2020. The charges against him included “spreading corruption on Earth through fire-setting and destruction of government belongings”. His ruling has been reversed on two occasions but on 4 October it was maintained on the third occasion. His trial was condemned as “deeply biased” by human rights activists and bodies.

Call to United Nations

The call to stop the boxer's execution comes after a 2023 appeal to the global human rights chief for rights, endorsed by in excess of one hundred advocates and entities, demanding action to stop the athlete’s death.

Death Penalty Surge

As per reports, there is an “capital punishment escalation in Iran, which has reached horrific dimensions”. In two thousand twenty-three, officials sentenced at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a 48% rise on the previous year. The year before, statistics showed nearly a thousand deaths, constituting the peak figure since two thousand fifteen. In excess of 800 people have been put to death so far in 2025.

Political prisoners and dissidents are targets, especially in the wake of the 2022's uprising. Analysts say the regime have employed the capital punishment to stifle opposition, generate fear among the population and strengthen their grip on power.