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Over 20 Olympic champions, coaches and further international athletes have put their names to a letter demanding a halt to the execution of a boxing titleholder and coach, who is on death row in the country.

Escalating Global Anger

During increasing international outrage over the country's expanding employment of executions as a instrument of repression, the powerfully expressed statement censures the Iranian regime's verdict to confirm the execution order of the athlete.

The boxer, three decades old, from the city in the northern province, was detained for taking part in national uprisings in the year 2019 and accused of backing an resistance movement. He has endured 60 months in incarceration, where he has been tortured and confined in solitary confinement.

“Sport is meant to encourage optimism, solidarity, and fortitude,” the endorsers wrote. “The execution of a champion for his opinions is a blatant attack on these principles and a caution to all sportspeople who dares to express dissent.

History of Putting to Death Sports Figures

The appeal noted that the athlete's case was not an isolated one and underscored Iran’s past of putting to death competitors for their convictions, including a football captain, leader of the football side, and a women's sports leader, skipper of the women's volleyball squad. In 2020, an athlete, a 27-year-old national wrestling champion, was put to death.

Additional signatories to the statement include a yachting pioneer, who skippered the inaugural female-only team in a global yacht race and was the pioneering lady to be awarded a esteemed sailing award; the ex- leader of the national squad an athlete; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the Iranian squad for the global tournament.

Detention and Flawed Legal Process

Vafaei Sani was arrested in the spring of 2020. The allegations against him entailed “promoting decay on Earth through incendiarism and ruin of government belongings”. His ruling has been annulled on two occasions but on 4 October it was upheld on the third occasion. His court case was denounced as “grossly unfair” by advocates and organizations.

Call to United Nations

The call to stop the boxer's capital punishment follows a 2023 letter to the global human rights chief for freedoms, signed by over one hundred rights specialists and entities, urging intervention to stop the athlete’s capital punishment.

Execution Crisis

Based on findings, there is an “execution crisis in the country, which has reached horrific dimensions”. In the year 2023, the government executed at least over 850 people – a nearly half surge on 2022. The year before, records showed nearly a thousand deaths, representing the highest number since 2015. In excess of hundreds of people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Dissidents and dissidents are victims, especially in the aftermath of the 2022 protests. Specialists say the government have used the death penalty to suppress dissent, instil anxiety among the population and strengthen their control on authority.