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Over two dozen Olympic medal winners, trainers and additional world-class competitors have put their names to a statement calling for a halt to the death penalty of a boxing champion and instructor, who is sentenced to die in the nation.

Increasing Global Anger

During increasing global condemnation over the country's expanding employment of capital punishment as a tool of oppression, the powerfully expressed statement denounces the authorities's verdict to uphold the execution order of the boxing champion.

Vafaei Sani, 30, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was taken into custody for taking part in national uprisings in the year 2019 and charged of backing an resistance movement. He has spent half a decade in incarceration, where he has been tortured and held in seclusion.

“Athletics is designed to promote hope, solidarity, and fortitude,” the supporters stated. “The death penalty of a titleholder for his opinions is a clear violation on these principles and a admonition to every athlete who ventures to voice opinions.

Pattern of Killing Athletes

The statement said that Vafaei Sani’s circumstances was part of a pattern and underscored the nation's history of putting to death sports champions for their beliefs, such as Habib Khabiri, leader of the football side, and Fourouzan Abdi, skipper of the female volleyball side. In the year 2020, a wrestling champion, a 27-year Iranian competitor, faced the death penalty.

Additional supporters to the statement comprise a yachting pioneer, who led the pioneering women's squad in a round-the-world competition and was the pioneering lady to earn a prestigious yachting trophy; the former leader of the Australian football team an athlete; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the Iranian squad for the international competition.

Detention and Unfair Trial

Vafaei Sani was taken into custody in early 2020. The allegations against him included “causing deterioration on Earth through fire-setting and damage of state assets”. His sentence has been annulled twice but on October 4 it was maintained on the third occasion. His legal proceedings was criticized as “grossly unfair” by rights defenders and organizations.

Appeal to UN

The urging to prevent the athlete's execution follows a previous appeal to the global human rights chief for rights, signed by more than 100 human rights experts and groups, urging measures to stop the competitor's execution.

Death Penalty Surge

Based on reports, there is an “death penalty surge in Iran, which has reached horrific dimensions”. In 2023, the government sentenced at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a forty-eight percent surge on 2022. In the prior period, statistics showed nearly a thousand executions, constituting the maximum count since the year 2015. Over eight hundred people have been put to death so far in 2025.

Political prisoners and dissidents are victims, particularly in the aftermath of the 2022 uprising. Experts say the regime have used the capital punishment to suppress opposition, instil anxiety among the public and reinforce their grip on rule.