🔗 Share this article Olympians Urge on Iranian Authorities to Prevent Death Sentence of Champion Boxer In excess of 20 Olympic champions, coaches and additional world-class competitors have signed a statement urging a stop to the execution of a boxing titleholder and coach, who is on death row in the nation. Growing Global Anger During growing worldwide anger over the nation's expanding employment of capital punishment as a tool of repression, the powerfully expressed statement censures the Iranian regime's verdict to maintain the execution order of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani. Vafaei Sani, thirty, from Mashhad in the northern province, was detained for participating in nationwide protests in two thousand nineteen and charged of aiding an resistance movement. He has passed half a decade in prison, where he has been tortured and kept in solitary confinement. “Athletics is meant to encourage faith, unity, and fortitude,” the endorsers wrote. “The capital punishment of a winner for his beliefs is a direct assault on these principles and a caution to any competitor who attempts to speak out. Record of Executing Competitors The appeal pointed out that Vafaei Sani’s circumstances was not an isolated one and underscored the country's record of executing competitors for their convictions, for example a national team leader, skipper of the national football team, and a women's sports leader, skipper of the national women’s volleyball team. In two thousand twenty, a wrestling champion, a young national sports titleholder, was also executed. Other supporters to the letter comprise a sailing champion, who captained the inaugural female-only team in a international sailing event and was the pioneering lady to earn a esteemed sailing award; the previous leader of the soccer side an athlete; 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 “causing deterioration on Earth through fire-setting and destruction of government belongings”. His verdict has been annulled twice but on October 4 it was upheld on the latest review. His court case was denounced as “grossly unfair” by rights defenders and bodies. Urging to United Nations The call to stop the boxer's death sentence comes after a earlier letter to the United Nations official for human rights, backed by over a hundred advocates and organizations, demanding measures to stop the athlete’s death. Capital Punishment Escalation Based on data, there is an “death penalty surge in the country, which has attained horrific levels”. In the year 2023, officials executed at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a nearly half rise on the previous year. The year before, statistics showed nearly a thousand deaths, marking the highest number since the year 2015. In excess of hundreds of people have been sentenced so far in 2025. Dissidents and protesters are victims, particularly in the aftermath of the 2022's protests. Analysts say the government have employed the capital punishment to quell dissent, create anxiety among the public and strengthen their control on rule.