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Over twenty Olympic champions, coaches and additional international athletes have put their names to a letter urging a stop to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and trainer, who is sentenced to die in the nation.

Growing International Outrage

Amidst increasing global condemnation over the country's increasing application of capital punishment as a tool of suppression, the powerfully expressed appeal censures the Iranian regime's decision to uphold the death sentence of the boxing champion.

The boxer, three decades old, from the city in north-east Iran, was taken into custody for participating in nationwide protests in two thousand nineteen and charged of supporting an resistance movement. He has spent five years in incarceration, where he has been abused and kept in seclusion.

“Competition is designed to inspire hope, solidarity, and courage,” the signatories stated. “The capital punishment of a titleholder for his beliefs is a blatant attack on these principles and a warning to all sportspeople who attempts to voice opinions.

Record of Putting to Death Sports Figures

The appeal noted that the athlete's circumstances was not an isolated one and underscored the nation's past of putting to death competitors for their beliefs, for example Habib Khabiri, leader of the national football team, and a women's sports leader, captain of the women's volleyball squad. In the year 2020, an athlete, a young Iranian competitor, was put to death.

Other supporters to the appeal include a sailing champion, who captained the pioneering female-only team in a international sailing event and was the first woman to earn a prestigious yachting trophy; the previous skipper of the national squad a sports advocate; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the Iranian squad for the 1978 World Cup.

Apprehension and Unfair Trial

The boxer was detained in March 2020. The accusations against him comprised “spreading corruption on Earth through incendiarism and destruction of public property”. His verdict has been reversed multiple times but on the fourth of October it was maintained on the third attempt. His legal proceedings was criticized as “grossly unfair” by rights defenders and bodies.

Urging to International Body

The appeal to prevent Vafaei Sani’s death sentence comes after a 2023 letter to the global human rights chief for human rights, endorsed by more than a hundred rights specialists and organizations, calling for action to avert the sports figure's death.

Execution Crisis

According to reports, there is an “execution crisis in the nation, which has reached shocking dimensions”. In two thousand twenty-three, the government sentenced at least 853 people – a nearly half rise on 2022. Last year, statistics showed 972 deaths, constituting the maximum count since the year 2015. In excess of eight hundred people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Dissidents and opponents are targets, notably in the aftermath of the 2022's protests. Analysts say the government have utilized the capital punishment to stifle dissent, create anxiety among the population and tighten their hold on authority.