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Over 20 Olympic champions, mentors and additional world-class competitors have endorsed a letter urging a stop to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and trainer, who is sentenced to die in Iran.

Growing Worldwide Condemnation

During rising global condemnation over the country's expanding employment of executions as a tool of oppression, the strongly worded letter condemns the Iranian regime's decision to uphold the capital punishment of the boxing champion.

Vafaei Sani, thirty, from the city in the northern province, was taken into custody for participating in national uprisings in the year 2019 and charged of aiding an opposition group. He has spent half a decade in detention, where he has been tortured and kept in seclusion.

“Competition is meant to inspire faith, unity, and bravery,” the signatories wrote. “The capital punishment of a champion for his beliefs is a blatant attack on these principles and a caution to every athlete who dares to voice opinions.

Pattern of Putting to Death Competitors

The statement noted that Vafaei Sani’s situation was not an isolated one and emphasized Iran’s history of executing sports champions for their beliefs, for example a football captain, captain of the soccer squad, and a women's sports leader, skipper of the national women’s volleyball team. In the year 2020, Navid Afkari, a young national competitor, was also executed.

Other supporters to the statement include a yachting pioneer, who skippered the inaugural all-female crew in a round-the-world competition and was the first woman to receive a renowned sailing award; the previous captain of the soccer side an athlete; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the Iranian squad for the 1978 World Cup.

Detention and Unjust Proceedings

The athlete was arrested in March 2020. The allegations against him entailed “causing deterioration on Earth through arson and damage of state assets”. His sentence has been reversed multiple times but on the fourth of October it was confirmed on the third occasion. His legal proceedings was condemned as “deeply biased” by rights defenders and bodies.

Appeal to United Nations

The urging to prevent Vafaei Sani’s execution follows a previous letter to the global human rights chief for freedoms, endorsed by more than one hundred human rights experts and organizations, calling for intervention to avert the athlete’s execution.

Death Penalty Surge

As per findings, there is an “capital punishment escalation in Iran, which has achieved alarming proportions”. In 2023, authorities put to death at least over 850 people – a 48% surge on 2022. Last year, statistics showed nine hundred seventy-two executions, constituting the highest number since 2015. More than eight hundred people have been put to death so far in 2025.

Dissidents and opponents are focus, especially in the wake of the the year 2022 uprising. Analysts say the Iranian authorities have used the death penalty to stifle opposition, generate fear among the population and reinforce their hold on rule.