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In excess of 20 Olympic medal winners, coaches and further global sports figures have endorsed a statement calling for a end to the death penalty of a boxing titleholder and trainer, who is sentenced to die in the country.

Growing International Outrage

During increasing international outrage over the country's expanding employment of capital punishment as a tool of suppression, the strongly worded appeal condemns the authorities's verdict to maintain the capital punishment of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The boxer, 30, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was arrested for participating in national uprisings in the year 2019 and charged of backing an resistance movement. He has passed half a decade in detention, where he has been mistreated and held in solitary confinement.

“Sport is meant to encourage hope, unity, and bravery,” the signatories wrote. “The capital punishment of a titleholder for his opinions is a direct assault on these principles and a admonition to every athlete who attempts to express dissent.

Pattern of Killing Sports Figures

The letter pointed out that the athlete's circumstances was not an isolated one and emphasized Iran’s history of putting to death athletes for their beliefs, for example a national team leader, leader of the soccer squad, and a volleyball captain, skipper of the female volleyball side. In the year 2020, an athlete, a 27-year-old national competitor, was also executed.

Additional signatories to the statement consist of Tracy Edwards, who captained the pioneering all-female crew in a global yacht race and was the initial female to earn a prestigious nautical honor; the previous leader of the soccer side a sports advocate; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the country's selection for the global tournament.

Apprehension and Unfair Trial

The boxer was arrested in the spring of 2020. The accusations against him entailed “causing deterioration on Earth through incendiarism and damage of state assets”. His sentence has been annulled on two occasions but on the fourth of October it was maintained on the third occasion. His court case was condemned as “highly unjust” by rights defenders and bodies.

Call to United Nations

The appeal to stop the boxer's capital punishment follows a previous appeal to the United Nations official for rights, backed by more than one hundred rights specialists and entities, calling for intervention to avert the competitor's execution.

Execution Crisis

Based on data, there is an “execution crisis in the nation, which has attained alarming levels”. In two thousand twenty-three, officials executed at least 853 people – a forty-eight percent increase on 2022. In the prior period, statistics showed 972 capital punishments, marking the peak figure since the year 2015. More than eight hundred people have been executed so far in 2025.

Activists and dissidents are focus, especially in the wake of the the year 2022 protests. Experts say the government have employed the executions to stifle protest, generate apprehension among the public and tighten their grip on rule.