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More than twenty Olympic medal winners, coaches and additional global sports figures have endorsed a letter calling for a end to the death penalty of a champion boxer and instructor, who is facing execution in Iran.

Increasing Global Anger

Amid growing international outrage over the country's expanding employment of the death penalty as a means of repression, the forcefully phrased statement censures the authorities's verdict to uphold the execution order of the boxing champion.

The boxer, three decades old, from the city in the northeastern region, was arrested for taking part in nationwide protests in 2019 and indicted of backing an opposition group. He has passed half a decade in detention, where he has been mistreated and held in isolation.

“Competition is meant to encourage hope, unity, and fortitude,” the signatories stated. “The death penalty of a titleholder for his political views is a direct assault on these ideals and a caution to all sportspeople who attempts to express dissent.

History of Executing Athletes

The letter noted that Vafaei Sani’s circumstances was not an isolated one and highlighted the country's past of sentencing to death sports champions for their beliefs, for example a football captain, captain of the national football team, and a women's sports leader, skipper of the women's volleyball squad. In 2020, an athlete, a 27-year Iranian wrestling champion, was also executed.

Additional signatories to the letter include Tracy Edwards, who skippered the first female-only team in a international sailing event and was the first woman to earn a renowned sailing award; the previous skipper of the Australian football team an athlete; and a footballer, who was in the Iranian squad for the global tournament.

Apprehension and Flawed Legal Process

The athlete was arrested in March 2020. The accusations against him included “promoting decay on Earth through incendiarism and damage of public property”. His ruling has been reversed multiple times but on 4 October it was upheld on the third occasion. His court case was condemned as “grossly unfair” by rights defenders and groups.

Appeal to International Body

The appeal to stop the athlete's death sentence comes after a 2023 appeal to the UN high commissioner for rights, signed by more than one hundred human rights experts and entities, demanding measures to avert the sports figure's execution.

Death Penalty Surge

Based on data, there is an “capital punishment escalation in Iran, which has reached alarming levels”. In two thousand twenty-three, officials sentenced at least eight hundred fifty-three people – a nearly half increase on 2022. The year before, records showed nine hundred seventy-two executions, marking the highest number since two thousand fifteen. Over 800 people have been sentenced so far in the current year.

Political prisoners and protesters are focus, notably in the aftermath of the the year 2022 uprising. Analysts say the government have used the death penalty to stifle dissent, generate anxiety among the public and strengthen their grip on rule.