🔗 Share this article

In excess of two dozen Olympic medal winners, mentors and other global sports figures have endorsed a appeal demanding a end to the capital punishment of a boxing champion and trainer, who is facing execution in the country.

Escalating International Outrage

Amid growing international outrage over the nation's increasing application of executions as a means of repression, the powerfully expressed appeal denounces the authorities's ruling to maintain the execution order of the athlete.

The athlete, three decades old, from the city in north-east Iran, was taken into custody for participating in countrywide demonstrations in two thousand nineteen and accused of backing an resistance movement. He has spent 60 months in detention, where he has been mistreated and confined in isolation.

“Athletics is intended to encourage optimism, togetherness, and fortitude,” the supporters stated. “The execution of a titleholder for his beliefs is a clear violation on these values and a admonition to all sportspeople who ventures to voice opinions.

Record of Putting to Death Sports Figures

The appeal said that the athlete's case was part of a pattern and underscored the nation's past of sentencing to death athletes for their beliefs, including a national team leader, skipper of the national football team, and a women's sports leader, captain of the national women’s volleyball team. In 2020, an athlete, a 27-year Iranian sports titleholder, was put to death.

Further signatories to the letter include a sailing champion, who skippered the first women's squad in a round-the-world competition and was the initial female to receive a renowned yachting trophy; the previous captain of the Australian football team an athlete; and a footballer, who was in the Iranian squad for the 1978 World Cup.

Arrest and Unjust Proceedings

Vafaei Sani was detained in early 2020. The allegations against him comprised “promoting decay on Earth through arson and destruction of public property”. His verdict has been annulled multiple times but on October 4 it was upheld on the third attempt. His legal proceedings was denounced as “grossly unfair” by advocates and bodies.

Call to International Body

The urging to stop the boxer's death sentence follows a 2023 statement to the United Nations official for human rights, signed by in excess of 100 rights specialists and entities, demanding intervention to avert the competitor's death.

Execution Crisis

Based on findings, there is an “death penalty surge in the country, which has achieved shocking proportions”. In the year 2023, officials sentenced at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a 48% surge on 2022. The year before, data showed 972 deaths, constituting the peak figure since the year 2015. In excess of eight hundred people have been sentenced so far in the current year.

Activists and dissidents are targets, notably in the wake of the 2022 protests. Experts say the government have employed the death penalty to stifle protest, generate fear among the citizenry and tighten their control on rule.