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In excess of 20 Olympic champions, coaches and other world-class competitors have put their names to a statement demanding a halt to the death penalty of a champion boxer and coach, who is on death row in the country.

Growing International Outrage

Amid rising global condemnation over the country's escalating use of executions as a tool of suppression, the strongly worded appeal censures the government's verdict to uphold the capital punishment of the athlete.

Vafaei Sani, 30, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was detained for taking part in nationwide protests in 2019 and charged of aiding an resistance movement. He has endured 60 months in incarceration, where he has been mistreated and held in solitary confinement.

“Athletics is designed to encourage optimism, solidarity, and courage,” the endorsers wrote. “The capital punishment of a champion for his political views is a direct assault on these values and a admonition to every athlete who attempts to speak out.

Pattern of Executing Sports Figures

The statement said that the athlete's circumstances was not an isolated one and highlighted Iran’s past of sentencing to death athletes for their beliefs, for example a football captain, leader of the football side, and a women's sports leader, skipper of the national women’s volleyball team. In 2020, an athlete, a young national sports titleholder, faced the death penalty.

Further signatories to the letter consist of Tracy Edwards, who captained the pioneering women's squad in a global yacht race and was the initial female to earn a prestigious nautical honor; the previous captain of the Australian football team a sports advocate; and a sports figure, who was in the national team for the 1978 World Cup.

Apprehension and Unjust Proceedings

The boxer was arrested in early 2020. The charges against him entailed “promoting decay on Earth through fire-setting and damage of public property”. His verdict has been reversed multiple times but on the fourth of October it was upheld on the latest review. His court case was denounced as “highly unjust” by rights defenders and bodies.

Appeal to International Body

The urging to prevent the athlete's capital punishment is subsequent to a previous statement to the United Nations official for human rights, signed by more than 100 human rights experts and organizations, demanding action to stop the competitor's capital punishment.

Capital Punishment Escalation

Based on findings, there is an “capital punishment escalation in Iran, which has reached horrific levels”. In 2023, authorities executed at least 853 people – a forty-eight percent increase on 2022. In the prior period, statistics showed 972 capital punishments, marking the highest number since 2015. More than 800 people have been executed so far in 2025.

Activists and dissidents are targets, particularly in the wake of the the year 2022 uprising. Specialists say the regime have utilized the executions to quell protest, generate apprehension among the public and tighten their hold on authority.