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More than two dozen Olympic champions, coaches and other world-class competitors have put their names to a appeal calling for a stop to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and coach, who is sentenced to die in Iran.

Escalating Worldwide Condemnation

Amid growing global condemnation over Iran’s escalating use of the death penalty as a tool of repression, the forcefully phrased appeal censures the Iranian regime's verdict to uphold the capital punishment of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The athlete, thirty, from the city in the northeastern region, was detained for participating in countrywide demonstrations in 2019 and charged of aiding an opposition group. He has spent five years in detention, where he has been tortured and confined in solitary confinement.

“Athletics is meant to inspire faith, solidarity, and bravery,” the endorsers expressed. “The death penalty of a titleholder for his political views is a direct assault on these values and a caution to any competitor who attempts to express dissent.

Pattern of Killing Competitors

The statement said that the athlete's situation was not an isolated one and underscored the country's history of executing sports champions for their views, for example a national team leader, captain of the football side, and Fourouzan Abdi, leader of the female volleyball side. In 2020, a wrestling champion, a 27-year-old Iranian wrestling champion, was put to death.

Other supporters to the statement consist of a yachting pioneer, who led the first all-female crew in a global yacht race and was the first woman to earn a esteemed yachting trophy; the former captain of the national squad Craig Foster; and a footballer, who was in the Iranian squad for the global tournament.

Detention and Unfair Trial

Vafaei Sani was taken into custody in the spring of 2020. The charges against him comprised “promoting decay on Earth through fire-setting and damage of government belongings”. His verdict has been overturned twice but on October 4 it was upheld on the third occasion. His trial was denounced as “grossly unfair” by rights defenders and organizations.

Appeal to United Nations

The call to halt the boxer's death sentence follows a previous appeal to the United Nations official for rights, backed by more than a hundred human rights experts and entities, demanding measures to avert the competitor's death.

Capital Punishment Escalation

According to data, there is an “execution crisis in Iran, which has achieved horrific proportions”. In two thousand twenty-three, officials executed at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a 48% rise on 2022. The year before, statistics showed nearly a thousand executions, representing the highest number since 2015. Over eight hundred people have been executed so far in 2025.

Political prisoners and protesters are targets, particularly in the wake of the the year 2022 protests. Specialists say the government have used the executions to stifle dissent, generate fear among the public and tighten their control on authority.