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Over 20 Olympic champions, coaches and other world-class competitors have put their names to a appeal calling for a halt to the death penalty of a boxing champion and trainer, who is sentenced to die in Iran.

Increasing International Outrage

Amid growing global condemnation over the nation's increasing application of executions as a means of oppression, the forcefully phrased statement censures the government's decision to maintain the death sentence of the boxing champion.

The athlete, 30, from the city in the northern province, was taken into custody for taking part in countrywide demonstrations in two thousand nineteen and charged of aiding an opposition group. He has spent five years in detention, where he has been mistreated and kept in seclusion.

“Competition is designed to inspire optimism, unity, and bravery,” the signatories stated. “The capital punishment of a winner for his beliefs is a blatant attack on these principles and a warning to every athlete who dares to speak out.

History of Killing Athletes

The statement pointed out that the athlete's situation was part of a pattern and underscored the nation's past of sentencing to death competitors for their convictions, such as Habib Khabiri, skipper of the national football team, and a women's sports leader, skipper of the female volleyball side. In the year 2020, Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old Iranian wrestling champion, was also executed.

Other endorsers to the appeal comprise Tracy Edwards, who skippered the pioneering all-female crew in a global yacht race and was the first woman to be awarded a renowned sailing award; the previous leader of the national squad Craig Foster; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the Iranian squad for the 1978 World Cup.

Arrest and Unfair Trial

Vafaei Sani was taken into custody in the spring of 2020. The accusations against him comprised “promoting decay on Earth through fire-setting and destruction of government belongings”. His sentence has been annulled on two occasions but on the fourth of October it was upheld on the latest review. His legal proceedings was criticized as “grossly unfair” by human rights activists and groups.

Call to United Nations

The urging to halt the boxer's death sentence follows a 2023 statement to the global human rights chief for rights, backed by in excess of a hundred human rights experts and groups, urging intervention to prevent the competitor's execution.

Execution Crisis

According to data, there is an “execution crisis in the nation, which has attained alarming proportions”. In two thousand twenty-three, the government sentenced at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a 48% surge on 2022. The year before, statistics showed 972 capital punishments, marking the maximum count since 2015. Over 800 people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Activists and protesters are targets, particularly in the aftermath of the 2022 protests. Specialists say the regime have employed the capital punishment to stifle protest, instil apprehension among the population and tighten their grip on rule.