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In excess of twenty Olympic medal winners, trainers and further global sports figures have put their names to a letter demanding a halt to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and trainer, who is on death row in Iran.

Growing International Outrage

During increasing international outrage over the nation's increasing application of the death penalty as a tool of oppression, the powerfully expressed letter condemns the Iranian regime's decision to confirm the execution order of the athlete.

Vafaei Sani, thirty, from the city in the northeastern region, was arrested for taking part in countrywide demonstrations in the year 2019 and accused of aiding an opposition group. He has spent 60 months in prison, where he has been abused and confined in seclusion.

“Sport is intended to encourage optimism, togetherness, and bravery,” the signatories expressed. “The execution of a winner for his beliefs is a blatant attack on these principles and a warning to all sportspeople who ventures to voice opinions.

Pattern of Executing Sports Figures

The letter said that Vafaei Sani’s circumstances was not an isolated one and highlighted the country's past of sentencing to death competitors for their convictions, such as Habib Khabiri, leader of the national football team, and a women's sports leader, skipper of the female volleyball side. In 2020, a wrestling champion, a 27-year-old Iranian competitor, was put to death.

Additional endorsers to the appeal consist of a sailing champion, who skippered the first female-only team in a global yacht race and was the first woman to receive a prestigious nautical honor; the previous skipper of the national squad an athlete; and a footballer, who was in the Iranian squad for the 1978 World Cup.

Detention and Unjust Proceedings

Vafaei Sani was taken into custody in the spring of 2020. The accusations against him included “causing deterioration on Earth through arson and destruction of public property”. His sentence has been overturned twice but on 4 October it was upheld on the third attempt. His legal proceedings was denounced as “highly unjust” by rights defenders and bodies.

Appeal to International Body

The urging to stop Vafaei Sani’s death sentence comes after a previous statement to the UN high commissioner for human rights, endorsed by over 100 human rights experts and groups, urging intervention to stop the competitor's death.

Capital Punishment Escalation

According to data, there is an “capital punishment escalation in Iran, which has attained shocking proportions”. In two thousand twenty-three, authorities executed at least over 850 people – a forty-eight percent rise on 2022. The year before, statistics showed nine hundred seventy-two capital punishments, representing the maximum count since 2015. In excess of hundreds of people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Dissidents and dissidents are targets, particularly in the aftermath of the the year 2022 demonstrations. Analysts say the Iranian authorities have used the death penalty to stifle dissent, generate anxiety among the population and tighten their grip on rule.