🔗 Share this article

Over 20 Olympic medallists, trainers and further global sports figures have put their names to a letter calling for a end to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and coach, who is on death row in Iran.

Escalating International Outrage

Amid increasing worldwide anger over the country's expanding employment of the death penalty as a instrument of suppression, the powerfully expressed statement condemns the government's decision to maintain the death sentence of the athlete.

The boxer, 30, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was arrested for participating in countrywide demonstrations in two thousand nineteen and charged of supporting an opposition group. He has endured 60 months in prison, where he has been tortured and kept in solitary confinement.

“Competition is designed to inspire hope, togetherness, and courage,” the signatories stated. “The execution of a winner for his opinions is a direct assault on these ideals and a caution to every athlete who attempts to express dissent.

Record of Putting to Death Sports Figures

The appeal noted that the boxer's case was part of a pattern and emphasized the country's past of putting to death competitors for their beliefs, for example a football captain, leader of the national football team, and a women's sports leader, skipper of the female volleyball side. In 2020, Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old Iranian wrestling champion, was also executed.

Additional supporters to the statement consist of a sailing champion, who skippered the inaugural female-only team in a round-the-world competition and was the pioneering lady to receive a renowned yachting trophy; the previous captain of the soccer side Craig Foster; and a sports figure, who was in the Iranian squad for the international competition.

Detention and Unfair Trial

The athlete was detained in early 2020. The accusations against him included “causing deterioration on Earth through arson and ruin of state assets”. His sentence has been reversed on two occasions but on the fourth of October it was confirmed on the third occasion. His court case was criticized as “deeply biased” by rights defenders and groups.

Call to UN

The appeal to stop the athlete's execution comes after a 2023 statement to the United Nations official for rights, signed by in excess of 100 advocates and organizations, calling for intervention to prevent the athlete’s execution.

Capital Punishment Escalation

According to reports, there is an “execution crisis in Iran, which has achieved horrific levels”. In the year 2023, officials sentenced at least over 850 people – a forty-eight percent increase on 2022. Last year, records showed nearly a thousand executions, constituting the highest number since two thousand fifteen. In excess of 800 people have been executed so far in the current year.

Dissidents and protesters are targets, especially in the wake of the 2022's demonstrations. Experts say the government have used the executions to quell protest, create apprehension among the citizenry and tighten their control on power.