🔗 Share this article

Over 20 Olympic champions, coaches and other international athletes have endorsed a appeal calling for a stop to the death penalty of a boxing champion and instructor, who is facing execution in the country.

Increasing Worldwide Condemnation

During rising worldwide anger over Iran’s expanding employment of executions as a means of suppression, the powerfully expressed appeal condemns the Iranian regime's ruling to uphold the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

The boxer, thirty, from the city in the northern province, was taken into custody for being involved in countrywide demonstrations in the year 2019 and accused of backing an dissident organization. He has endured 60 months in prison, where he has been tortured and kept in solitary confinement.

“Sport is intended to promote faith, solidarity, and bravery,” the endorsers stated. “The capital punishment of a titleholder for his beliefs is a clear violation on these values and a warning to any competitor who dares to speak out.

Pattern of Executing Sports Figures

The statement said that the athlete's case was part of a pattern and underscored Iran’s past of executing competitors for their convictions, such as a national team leader, skipper of the national football team, and Fourouzan Abdi, skipper of the female volleyball side. In 2020, Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old national wrestling champion, was put to death.

Further supporters to the appeal comprise a yachting pioneer, who led the inaugural women's squad in a international sailing event and was the first woman to receive a renowned sailing award; the ex- captain of the national squad Craig Foster; and a footballer, who was in the Iranian squad for the international competition.

Apprehension and Unjust Proceedings

The boxer was arrested in the spring of 2020. The charges against him entailed “promoting decay on Earth through fire-setting and ruin of government belongings”. His ruling has been annulled twice but on the fourth of October it was upheld on the latest review. His court case was condemned as “deeply biased” by human rights activists and organizations.

Call to UN

The appeal to prevent Vafaei Sani’s capital punishment is subsequent to a earlier letter to the global human rights chief for human rights, endorsed by more than one hundred rights specialists and entities, urging intervention to avert the sports figure's execution.

Death Penalty Surge

According to findings, there is an “death penalty surge in the country, which has achieved alarming levels”. In two thousand twenty-three, the government executed at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a nearly half rise on the previous year. Last year, records showed nearly a thousand capital punishments, marking the highest number since two thousand fifteen. Over eight hundred people have been sentenced so far in the current year.

Dissidents and opponents are targets, particularly in the wake of the 2022 demonstrations. Analysts say the government have used the capital punishment to suppress opposition, instil apprehension among the citizenry and reinforce their hold on authority.