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In excess of twenty Olympic medallists, coaches and further world-class competitors have signed a statement urging a end to the death penalty of a champion boxer and coach, who is on death row in the nation.

Escalating Worldwide Condemnation

Amidst growing worldwide anger over Iran’s increasing application of executions as a tool of oppression, the forcefully phrased letter denounces the government's verdict to confirm the death sentence of the boxing champion.

The athlete, three decades old, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was detained for participating in national uprisings in 2019 and accused of aiding an resistance movement. He has passed 60 months in incarceration, where he has been mistreated and kept in isolation.

“Athletics is intended to encourage hope, unity, and fortitude,” the supporters wrote. “The capital punishment of a champion for his opinions is a blatant attack on these principles and a admonition to every athlete who ventures to voice opinions.

Pattern of Executing Athletes

The statement pointed out that the athlete's circumstances was not an isolated one and highlighted Iran’s past of putting to death competitors for their views, including Habib Khabiri, captain of the soccer squad, and Fourouzan Abdi, skipper of the female volleyball side. In 2020, an athlete, a 27-year national competitor, was also executed.

Additional signatories to the letter comprise Tracy Edwards, who led the pioneering female-only team in a global yacht race and was the first woman to receive a renowned yachting trophy; the former captain of the Australian football team a sports advocate; and a footballer, who was in the national team for the 1978 World Cup.

Detention and Flawed Legal Process

Vafaei Sani was detained in March 2020. The charges against him entailed “spreading corruption on Earth through arson and ruin of state assets”. His ruling has been reversed multiple times but on October 4 it was maintained on the third attempt. His trial was denounced as “grossly unfair” by human rights activists and bodies.

Call to International Body

The urging to halt the athlete's capital punishment comes after a previous statement to the global human rights chief for freedoms, endorsed by more than one hundred advocates and organizations, urging action to stop the sports figure's death.

Death Penalty Surge

As per data, there is an “capital punishment escalation in Iran, which has attained horrific dimensions”. In 2023, officials executed at least over 850 people – a forty-eight percent surge on the previous year. In the prior period, records showed nine hundred seventy-two executions, constituting the peak figure since the year 2015. More than hundreds of people have been put to death so far in the current year.

Political prisoners and protesters are victims, notably in the wake of the the year 2022 uprising. Specialists say the Iranian authorities have employed the capital punishment to stifle dissent, instil fear among the citizenry and reinforce their grip on authority.