🔗 Share this article

More than twenty Olympic champions, coaches and additional world-class competitors have endorsed a appeal calling for a end to the execution of a champion boxer and trainer, who is sentenced to die in Iran.

Increasing Global Anger

Amidst growing worldwide anger over the nation's expanding employment of the death penalty as a instrument of suppression, the forcefully phrased appeal condemns the Iranian regime's verdict to maintain the capital punishment of the boxing champion.

Vafaei Sani, thirty, from Mashhad in the northern province, was detained for being involved in nationwide protests in the year 2019 and charged of backing an opposition group. He has endured half a decade in incarceration, where he has been abused and held in isolation.

“Athletics is designed to promote optimism, solidarity, and courage,” the supporters wrote. “The capital punishment of a winner for his opinions is a direct assault on these values and a admonition to every athlete who attempts to express dissent.

Record of Killing Athletes

The letter pointed out that the athlete's circumstances was part of a pattern and emphasized the nation's record of sentencing to death sports champions for their convictions, including a national team leader, skipper of the soccer squad, and a volleyball captain, leader of the female volleyball side. In 2020, a wrestling champion, a 27-year national competitor, was put to death.

Additional signatories to the statement consist of a sailing champion, who led the inaugural women's squad in a global yacht race and was the first woman to receive a prestigious nautical honor; the former captain of the national squad an athlete; and a sports figure, who was in the Iranian squad for the 1978 World Cup.

Arrest and Unjust Proceedings

The boxer was detained in the spring of 2020. The charges against him included “causing deterioration on Earth through incendiarism and damage of state assets”. His sentence has been overturned multiple times but on October 4 it was upheld on the third occasion. His legal proceedings was denounced as “grossly unfair” by human rights activists and bodies.

Urging to UN

The appeal to halt the athlete's death sentence comes after a earlier statement to the global human rights chief for human rights, endorsed by over one hundred advocates and organizations, urging action to avert the sports figure's execution.

Death Penalty Surge

According to data, there is an “capital punishment escalation in the country, which has achieved alarming dimensions”. In the year 2023, authorities executed at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a nearly half increase on 2022. In the prior period, statistics showed 972 deaths, constituting the highest number since the year 2015. Over eight hundred people have been sentenced so far in the current year.

Activists and dissidents are focus, particularly in the aftermath of the the year 2022 uprising. Specialists say the Iranian authorities have used the death penalty to suppress protest, generate anxiety among the public and reinforce their hold on power.