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More than 20 Olympic champions, trainers and additional international athletes have endorsed a statement urging a stop to the death penalty of a boxing champion and instructor, who is facing execution in Iran.

Increasing Global Anger

Amid rising worldwide anger over Iran’s increasing application of executions as a tool of suppression, the strongly worded statement censures the government's verdict to confirm the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The athlete, thirty, from Mashhad in the northeastern region, was taken into custody for participating in countrywide demonstrations in 2019 and accused of backing an dissident organization. He has endured five years in incarceration, where he has been tortured and held in isolation.

“Competition is meant to inspire faith, togetherness, and bravery,” the supporters expressed. “The execution of a champion for his beliefs is a direct assault on these values and a caution to all sportspeople who ventures to speak out.

Record of Executing Athletes

The statement pointed out that Vafaei Sani’s case was part of a pattern and underscored the country's past of sentencing to death competitors for their convictions, including a national team leader, leader of the football side, and a women's sports leader, captain of the female volleyball side. In 2020, a wrestling champion, a young national sports titleholder, faced the death penalty.

Further endorsers to the appeal consist of Tracy Edwards, who captained the pioneering women's squad in a round-the-world competition and was the first woman to earn a prestigious sailing award; the former skipper of the soccer side Craig Foster; and a sports figure, who was in the country's selection for the international competition.

Detention and Unfair Trial

Vafaei Sani was taken into custody in March 2020. The charges against him comprised “promoting decay on Earth through fire-setting and destruction of state assets”. His ruling has been overturned twice but on October 4 it was confirmed on the latest review. His trial was condemned as “grossly unfair” by rights defenders and groups.

Appeal to UN

The call to halt the athlete's death sentence comes after a earlier letter to the UN high commissioner for rights, backed by over 100 human rights experts and groups, calling for measures to stop the competitor's death.

Capital Punishment Escalation

As per data, there is an “capital punishment escalation in Iran, which has attained shocking proportions”. In two thousand twenty-three, the government executed at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a forty-eight percent surge on 2022. Last year, statistics showed nearly a thousand capital punishments, representing the maximum count since the year 2015. More than eight hundred people have been executed so far in the current year.

Activists and opponents are targets, particularly in the wake of the 2022's demonstrations. Specialists say the regime have employed the executions to quell protest, instil anxiety among the public and reinforce their grip on power.