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More than twenty Olympic champions, coaches and further global sports figures have endorsed a letter urging a stop to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and instructor, who is on death row in Iran.

Growing International Outrage

Amidst increasing global condemnation over the nation's expanding employment of executions as a instrument of oppression, the forcefully phrased statement censures the Iranian regime's verdict to maintain the execution order of the boxing champion.

The athlete, thirty, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was taken into custody for being involved in countrywide demonstrations in 2019 and accused of backing an resistance movement. He has passed 60 months in incarceration, where he has been abused and held in seclusion.

“Competition is meant to promote hope, unity, and bravery,” the signatories stated. “The execution of a champion for his beliefs is a direct assault on these principles and a warning to any competitor who ventures to speak out.

History of Killing Athletes

The letter said that the boxer's circumstances was part of a pattern and emphasized the nation's history of sentencing to death athletes for their convictions, for example a football captain, skipper of the football side, and Fourouzan Abdi, skipper of the female volleyball side. In the year 2020, Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old Iranian wrestling champion, faced the death penalty.

Additional supporters to the statement include a yachting pioneer, who led the pioneering all-female crew in a round-the-world competition and was the first woman to earn a renowned nautical honor; the ex- leader of the soccer side an athlete; and Bahram Mavaddat, who was in the country's selection for the 1978 World Cup.

Detention and Flawed Legal Process

The boxer was detained in early 2020. The accusations against him comprised “spreading corruption on Earth through incendiarism and ruin of government belongings”. His ruling has been reversed multiple times but on October 4 it was upheld on the latest review. His trial was denounced as “grossly unfair” by rights defenders and organizations.

Call to United Nations

The call to prevent the boxer's death sentence follows a earlier statement to the UN high commissioner for rights, backed by in excess of one hundred advocates and groups, urging action to avert the sports figure's execution.

Capital Punishment Escalation

Based on data, there is an “capital punishment escalation in Iran, which has attained alarming levels”. In 2023, authorities executed at least over 850 people – a 48% rise on 2022. The year before, data showed nine hundred seventy-two executions, representing the peak figure since 2015. More than hundreds of people have been put to death so far in the current year.

Activists and opponents are targets, notably in the aftermath of the the year 2022 demonstrations. Experts say the regime have utilized the capital punishment to quell dissent, generate anxiety among the population and strengthen their grip on power.