🔗 Share this article

More than two dozen Olympic champions, trainers and further international athletes have endorsed a appeal urging a halt to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and trainer, who is sentenced to die in the nation.

Growing International Outrage

Amid rising international outrage over the nation's escalating use of the death penalty as a tool of repression, the strongly worded statement condemns the Iranian regime's verdict to uphold the death sentence of the boxing champion.

Vafaei Sani, three decades old, from the city in the northeastern region, was taken into custody for being involved in national uprisings in the year 2019 and indicted of backing an opposition group. He has spent five years in prison, where he has been tortured and held in isolation.

“Competition is designed to inspire faith, unity, and fortitude,” the endorsers expressed. “The capital punishment of a winner for his political views is a direct assault on these values and a admonition to any competitor who ventures to speak out.

Record of Executing Sports Figures

The letter said that Vafaei Sani’s situation was not an isolated one and underscored Iran’s history of sentencing to death athletes for their beliefs, for example a national team leader, leader of the national football team, and Fourouzan Abdi, leader of the female volleyball side. In 2020, an athlete, a 27-year Iranian competitor, faced the death penalty.

Other supporters to the appeal comprise a sailing champion, who skippered the pioneering all-female crew in a global yacht race and was the pioneering lady to receive a esteemed yachting trophy; the former captain of the soccer side Craig Foster; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the Iranian squad for the global tournament.

Detention and Unfair Trial

Vafaei Sani was taken into custody in the spring of 2020. The charges against him entailed “spreading corruption on Earth through incendiarism and damage of government belongings”. His verdict has been overturned on two occasions but on October 4 it was upheld on the third occasion. His legal proceedings was condemned as “highly unjust” by rights defenders and bodies.

Appeal to UN

The urging to prevent the boxer's capital punishment is subsequent to a previous letter to the United Nations official for human rights, backed by more than 100 advocates and groups, demanding measures to avert the sports figure's capital punishment.

Capital Punishment Escalation

According to reports, there is an “capital punishment escalation in the nation, which has reached alarming dimensions”. In the year 2023, officials sentenced at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a forty-eight percent increase on 2022. The year before, data showed nearly a thousand executions, constituting the maximum count since two thousand fifteen. Over eight hundred people have been put to death so far in 2025.

Political prisoners and opponents are targets, notably in the wake of the 2022 demonstrations. Analysts say the regime have utilized the executions to stifle protest, create fear among the public and strengthen their control on rule.