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More than two dozen Olympic medal winners, trainers and other global sports figures have endorsed a statement demanding a stop to the execution of a champion boxer and instructor, who is on death row in the nation.

Increasing Global Anger

During growing worldwide anger over the country's escalating use of executions as a instrument of suppression, the powerfully expressed appeal censures the government's verdict to confirm the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The boxer, three decades old, from the city in the northeastern region, was detained for being involved in countrywide demonstrations in two thousand nineteen and charged of aiding an dissident organization. He has passed 60 months in prison, where he has been mistreated and held in isolation.

“Competition is intended to promote faith, unity, and fortitude,” the endorsers wrote. “The execution of a titleholder for his beliefs is a clear violation on these ideals and a caution to every athlete who dares to speak out.

Record of Executing Athletes

The appeal pointed out that the athlete's situation was part of a pattern and highlighted the country's past of putting to death athletes for their convictions, including a national team leader, skipper of the national football team, and a volleyball captain, leader of the female volleyball side. In the year 2020, Navid Afkari, a young Iranian wrestling champion, was also executed.

Other endorsers to the appeal include a sailing champion, who led the pioneering women's squad in a round-the-world competition and was the first woman to be awarded a esteemed yachting trophy; the former skipper of the Australian football team Craig Foster; and a sports figure, who was in the Iranian squad for the global tournament.

Detention and Unfair Trial

Vafaei Sani was detained in March 2020. The accusations against him entailed “promoting decay on Earth through arson and ruin of public property”. His ruling has been overturned multiple times but on the fourth of October it was upheld on the third attempt. His legal proceedings was denounced as “highly unjust” by human rights activists and organizations.

Urging to UN

The call to stop the athlete's execution follows a earlier appeal to the global human rights chief for freedoms, endorsed by in excess of 100 human rights experts and organizations, urging intervention to avert the athlete’s execution.

Capital Punishment Escalation

According to reports, there is an “capital punishment escalation in the country, which has reached alarming proportions”. In 2023, the government put to death at least 853 people – a forty-eight percent surge on 2022. In the prior period, records showed nearly a thousand executions, marking the highest number since the year 2015. More than hundreds of people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Dissidents and dissidents are victims, particularly in the aftermath of the the year 2022 protests. Experts say the Iranian authorities have used the death penalty to stifle dissent, create anxiety among the public and reinforce their grip on power.