🔗 Share this article

In excess of 20 Olympic champions, coaches and other global sports figures have endorsed a letter calling for a stop to the capital punishment of a boxing titleholder and instructor, who is facing execution in Iran.

Increasing International Outrage

During increasing global condemnation over Iran’s escalating use of the death penalty as a means of suppression, the strongly worded letter censures the government's ruling to maintain the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The boxer, thirty, from the city in north-east Iran, was taken into custody for participating in national uprisings in the year 2019 and charged of backing an opposition group. He has passed half a decade in incarceration, where he has been abused and held in solitary confinement.

“Competition is intended to inspire hope, togetherness, and courage,” the signatories stated. “The death penalty of a champion for his beliefs is a blatant attack on these values and a caution to all sportspeople who attempts to express dissent.

Record of Killing Sports Figures

The statement said that the boxer's case was not unique and highlighted the country's past of sentencing to death sports champions for their views, for example a football captain, skipper of the national football team, and a women's sports leader, leader of the national women’s volleyball team. In two thousand twenty, a wrestling champion, a young national wrestling champion, was also executed.

Other signatories to the appeal comprise a sailing champion, who skippered the pioneering female-only team in a global yacht race and was the first woman to receive a prestigious sailing award; the previous leader of the soccer side Craig Foster; and a footballer, who was in the Iranian squad for the global tournament.

Detention and Unfair Trial

The athlete was taken into custody in March 2020. The charges against him comprised “causing deterioration on Earth through fire-setting and destruction of public property”. His sentence has been annulled on two occasions but on 4 October it was maintained on the third attempt. His trial was criticized as “grossly unfair” by rights defenders and bodies.

Call to International Body

The appeal to halt the athlete's death sentence is subsequent to a previous letter to the global human rights chief for human rights, signed by more than 100 human rights experts and groups, demanding intervention to prevent the competitor's death.

Death Penalty Surge

Based on findings, there is an “capital punishment escalation in the nation, which has achieved shocking proportions”. In 2023, authorities sentenced at least over 850 people – a nearly half surge on the previous year. Last year, statistics showed nine hundred seventy-two deaths, representing the peak figure since two thousand fifteen. More than 800 people have been executed so far in the current year.

Activists and dissidents are victims, especially in the aftermath of the 2022's demonstrations. Analysts say the regime have used the capital punishment to quell protest, create anxiety among the public and reinforce their grip on rule.