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In excess of two dozen Olympic medallists, mentors and other world-class competitors have endorsed a letter urging a halt to the execution of a boxing titleholder and instructor, who is on death row in Iran.

Growing International Outrage

Amidst increasing global condemnation over the nation's escalating use of capital punishment as a tool of repression, the strongly worded letter censures the Iranian regime's decision to confirm the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The athlete, thirty, from the city in north-east Iran, was taken into custody for taking part in national uprisings in the year 2019 and charged of backing an dissident organization. He has spent 60 months in incarceration, where he has been abused and confined in isolation.

“Sport is designed to encourage hope, solidarity, and bravery,” the endorsers expressed. “The execution of a titleholder for his beliefs is a clear violation on these ideals and a caution to all sportspeople who ventures to voice opinions.

Pattern of Executing Athletes

The appeal said that the athlete's situation was part of a pattern and highlighted the nation's past of sentencing to death competitors for their views, for example a football captain, captain of the national football team, and Fourouzan Abdi, skipper of the female volleyball side. In the year 2020, an athlete, a 27-year national competitor, faced the death penalty.

Other endorsers to the appeal include Tracy Edwards, who skippered the inaugural female-only team in a global yacht race and was the initial female to earn a renowned yachting trophy; the previous skipper of the soccer side a sports advocate; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the country's selection for the 1978 World Cup.

Detention and Unjust Proceedings

The boxer was arrested in the spring of 2020. The charges against him entailed “spreading corruption on Earth through fire-setting and ruin of state assets”. His verdict has been annulled twice but on October 4 it was maintained on the third occasion. His legal proceedings was condemned as “grossly unfair” by rights defenders and bodies.

Urging to United Nations

The appeal to prevent Vafaei Sani’s death sentence follows a earlier appeal to the United Nations official for human rights, endorsed by over one hundred rights specialists and groups, calling for intervention to stop the competitor's execution.

Capital Punishment Escalation

According to reports, there is an “capital punishment escalation in Iran, which has attained alarming levels”. In the year 2023, officials sentenced at least over 850 people – a nearly half rise on 2022. Last year, statistics showed nearly a thousand executions, constituting the peak figure since 2015. In excess of eight hundred people have been executed so far in 2025.

Dissidents and protesters are targets, especially in the aftermath of the the year 2022 protests. Analysts say the Iranian authorities have employed the executions to suppress dissent, create fear among the public and reinforce their control on power.