🔗 Share this article

In excess of two dozen Olympic champions, coaches and additional world-class competitors have put their names to a statement demanding a halt to the death penalty of a boxing champion and coach, who is on death row in the country.

Escalating Global Anger

Amidst rising worldwide anger over the nation's escalating use of the death penalty as a tool of repression, the forcefully phrased statement censures the Iranian regime's ruling to maintain the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The boxer, thirty, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was taken into custody for participating in nationwide protests in two thousand nineteen and charged of backing an opposition group. He has spent five years in incarceration, where he has been tortured and confined in seclusion.

“Sport is meant to promote hope, solidarity, and fortitude,” the endorsers expressed. “The execution of a titleholder for his opinions is a direct assault on these values and a caution to any competitor who ventures to express dissent.

History of Executing Athletes

The statement noted that the athlete's case was not an isolated one and highlighted the nation's past of executing athletes for their beliefs, including a football captain, skipper of the national football team, and Fourouzan Abdi, skipper of the female volleyball side. In 2020, a wrestling champion, a young Iranian competitor, was put to death.

Further supporters to the appeal include a sailing champion, who skippered the pioneering female-only team in a international sailing event and was the initial female to be awarded a renowned yachting trophy; the former skipper of the Australian football team a sports advocate; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the Iranian squad for the 1978 World Cup.

Arrest and Flawed Legal Process

The boxer was taken into custody in the spring of 2020. The allegations against him entailed “causing deterioration on Earth through arson and damage of public property”. His sentence has been reversed multiple times but on 4 October it was upheld on the latest review. His legal proceedings was condemned as “highly unjust” by advocates and organizations.

Urging to International Body

The urging to halt Vafaei Sani’s execution follows a previous statement to the global human rights chief for rights, backed by over 100 rights specialists and groups, urging measures to prevent the athlete’s execution.

Capital Punishment Escalation

According to reports, there is an “death penalty surge in the country, which has achieved horrific proportions”. In two thousand twenty-three, authorities executed at least 853 people – a forty-eight percent surge on 2022. The year before, records showed nine hundred seventy-two executions, constituting the maximum count since 2015. Over 800 people have been put to death so far in 2025.

Dissidents and protesters are targets, notably in the aftermath of the the year 2022 protests. Specialists say the Iranian authorities have used the death penalty to quell dissent, generate anxiety among the citizenry and strengthen their grip on authority.