🔗 Share this article Elite Athletes Call on Iran to Halt Death Sentence of Boxing Star In excess of 20 Olympic champions, trainers and additional world-class competitors have put their names to a statement calling for a end to the death penalty of a boxing champion and trainer, who is facing execution in the nation. Escalating Worldwide Condemnation During growing global condemnation over the country's expanding employment of the death penalty as a tool of suppression, the forcefully phrased letter condemns the authorities's decision to confirm the execution order of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani. The boxer, three decades old, from the city in the northern province, was arrested for participating in nationwide protests in 2019 and accused of supporting an opposition group. He has spent five years in incarceration, where he has been abused and held in isolation. “Athletics is meant to inspire faith, solidarity, and bravery,” the signatories stated. “The death penalty of a champion for his beliefs is a clear violation on these ideals and a warning to all sportspeople who dares to voice opinions. Record of Killing Sports Figures The statement noted that the athlete's situation was part of a pattern and emphasized the country's past of executing athletes for their views, including Habib Khabiri, captain of the national football team, and a volleyball captain, leader of the women's volleyball squad. In two thousand twenty, Navid Afkari, a young Iranian sports titleholder, was also executed. Further endorsers to the appeal consist of a yachting pioneer, who skippered the pioneering women's squad in a round-the-world competition and was the pioneering lady to receive a esteemed yachting trophy; the ex- skipper of the Australian football team an athlete; and a sports figure, who was in the country's selection for the 1978 World Cup. Detention and Unfair Trial Vafaei Sani was detained in the spring of 2020. The charges against him comprised “spreading corruption on Earth through arson and ruin of public property”. His verdict has been reversed on two occasions but on October 4 it was upheld on the third attempt. His legal proceedings was denounced as “deeply biased” by advocates and organizations. Appeal to International Body The call to prevent the athlete's capital punishment comes after a previous appeal to the UN high commissioner for human rights, endorsed by in excess of one hundred human rights experts and groups, calling for measures to avert the sports figure's capital punishment. Execution Crisis According to findings, there is an “capital punishment escalation in the nation, which has attained alarming dimensions”. In the year 2023, authorities sentenced at least over 850 people – a 48% surge on 2022. In the prior period, data showed nearly a thousand capital punishments, marking the peak figure since 2015. In excess of eight hundred people have been sentenced so far in the current year. Political prisoners and protesters are targets, especially in the wake of the the year 2022 protests. Experts say the Iranian authorities have used the capital punishment to quell protest, generate apprehension among the population and tighten their grip on authority.