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Over 20 Olympic champions, trainers and further world-class competitors have put their names to a letter calling for a end to the death penalty of a champion boxer and instructor, who is sentenced to die in the nation.

Growing International Outrage

Amid rising worldwide anger over the country's expanding employment of executions as a instrument of oppression, the strongly worded letter denounces the Iranian regime's verdict to uphold the capital punishment of the athlete.

The athlete, thirty, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was arrested for taking part in countrywide demonstrations in the year 2019 and charged of backing an resistance movement. He has spent 60 months in incarceration, where he has been tortured and confined in seclusion.

“Athletics is intended to promote optimism, solidarity, and bravery,” the endorsers expressed. “The death penalty of a titleholder for his political views is a blatant attack on these principles and a warning to any competitor who dares to express dissent.

History of Putting to Death Athletes

The appeal said that Vafaei Sani’s circumstances was not unique and underscored the nation's record of putting to death sports champions for their convictions, for example a football captain, skipper of the football side, and Fourouzan Abdi, leader of the women's volleyball squad. In the year 2020, an athlete, a young national sports titleholder, faced the death penalty.

Further endorsers to the appeal comprise Tracy Edwards, who led the first all-female crew in a international sailing event and was the first woman to be awarded a esteemed yachting trophy; the former captain of the soccer side an athlete; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the national team for the global tournament.

Arrest and Unfair Trial

The athlete was arrested in March 2020. The charges against him comprised “promoting decay on Earth through arson and damage of public property”. His sentence has been overturned twice but on the fourth of October it was confirmed on the third occasion. His court case was criticized as “highly unjust” by advocates and bodies.

Urging to United Nations

The call to stop the boxer's capital punishment comes after a earlier appeal to the UN high commissioner for freedoms, signed by over a hundred advocates and groups, urging intervention to prevent the athlete’s execution.

Execution Crisis

According to findings, there is an “death penalty surge in the country, which has reached shocking proportions”. In the year 2023, officials put to death at least over 850 people – a forty-eight percent increase on 2022. Last year, records showed nine hundred seventy-two deaths, constituting the peak figure since 2015. In excess of 800 people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Activists and dissidents are targets, especially in the wake of the 2022's protests. Analysts say the regime have used the executions to quell dissent, generate anxiety among the population and tighten their grip on power.