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Over twenty Olympic medal winners, trainers and further global sports figures have put their names to a appeal calling for a stop to the capital punishment of a boxing titleholder and coach, who is on death row in the country.

Growing Global Anger

Amid rising international outrage over Iran’s increasing application of executions as a means of oppression, the powerfully expressed statement denounces the government's ruling to confirm the capital punishment of the boxing champion.

The athlete, three decades old, from Mashhad in the northeastern region, was taken into custody for taking part in countrywide demonstrations in the year 2019 and indicted of aiding an resistance movement. He has passed 60 months in prison, where he has been mistreated and confined in seclusion.

“Competition is intended to promote faith, solidarity, and fortitude,” the supporters wrote. “The capital punishment of a champion for his opinions is a blatant attack on these values and a admonition to every athlete who dares to speak out.

Record of Executing Competitors

The statement said that Vafaei Sani’s case was part of a pattern and highlighted the country's record of executing athletes for their beliefs, including a football captain, skipper of the national football team, and a volleyball captain, skipper of the female volleyball side. In the year 2020, an athlete, a 27-year Iranian wrestling champion, was put to death.

Further endorsers to the letter consist of a yachting pioneer, who led the pioneering women's squad in a international sailing event and was the first woman to be awarded a renowned yachting trophy; the former skipper of the national squad an athlete; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the country's selection for the global tournament.

Detention and Unfair Trial

Vafaei Sani was detained in March 2020. The charges against him comprised “causing deterioration on Earth through arson and damage of state assets”. His ruling has been reversed on two occasions but on October 4 it was maintained on the latest review. His trial was criticized as “deeply biased” by human rights activists and bodies.

Call to UN

The appeal to prevent the athlete's execution comes after a previous appeal to the United Nations official for freedoms, backed by in excess of a hundred rights specialists and groups, demanding intervention to avert the sports figure's execution.

Execution Crisis

According to findings, there is an “capital punishment escalation in the nation, which has attained shocking proportions”. In two thousand twenty-three, the government sentenced at least 853 people – a forty-eight percent increase on the previous year. In the prior period, records showed nine hundred seventy-two deaths, representing the highest number since the year 2015. More than eight hundred people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Political prisoners and dissidents are focus, especially in the wake of the 2022 protests. Specialists say the government have utilized the executions to quell protest, instil anxiety among the citizenry and strengthen their hold on power.