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More than two dozen Olympic champions, trainers and other international athletes have endorsed a statement urging a end to the capital punishment of a boxing titleholder and trainer, who is facing execution in the nation.

Growing International Outrage

Amid increasing global condemnation over the country's increasing application of the death penalty as a means of suppression, the powerfully expressed appeal denounces the government's verdict to uphold the execution order of the athlete.

The boxer, thirty, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was arrested for taking part in nationwide protests in two thousand nineteen and accused of backing an resistance movement. He has spent five years in incarceration, where he has been abused and kept in seclusion.

“Competition is intended to promote hope, solidarity, and bravery,” the supporters wrote. “The capital punishment of a champion for his beliefs is a direct assault on these principles and a caution to every athlete who attempts to speak out.

Record of Executing Competitors

The letter noted that the athlete's circumstances was not an isolated one and emphasized the nation's history of sentencing to death sports champions for their convictions, for example a football captain, captain of the national football team, and Fourouzan Abdi, skipper of the female volleyball side. In two thousand twenty, an athlete, a 27-year national wrestling champion, was also executed.

Other endorsers to the letter consist of a sailing champion, who skippered the inaugural all-female crew in a round-the-world competition and was the first woman to earn a renowned nautical honor; the former leader of the national squad a sports advocate; and a footballer, who was in the national team for the 1978 World Cup.

Arrest and Flawed Legal Process

The boxer was detained in the spring of 2020. The charges against him comprised “causing deterioration on Earth through arson and ruin of public property”. His ruling has been annulled twice but on October 4 it was maintained on the latest review. His trial was denounced as “highly unjust” by rights defenders and bodies.

Appeal to United Nations

The call to halt Vafaei Sani’s capital punishment follows a previous letter to the global human rights chief for human rights, signed by in excess of a hundred human rights experts and organizations, urging measures to avert the competitor's death.

Execution Crisis

According to findings, there is an “death penalty surge in the nation, which has attained horrific levels”. In the year 2023, authorities sentenced at least 853 people – a forty-eight percent surge on 2022. The year before, statistics showed nine hundred seventy-two capital punishments, representing the maximum count since two thousand fifteen. More than eight hundred people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Political prisoners and dissidents are targets, particularly in the aftermath of the 2022's uprising. Experts say the regime have used the executions to suppress opposition, create anxiety among the population and tighten their grip on power.