Pressure mounted upon Iran over the proposed execution of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, 30, a boxing champion and coach, after a letter duly signed by more than 20 Olympic medallists, coaches and international athletes urged the regime to commute his death sentence, as he has been on death row for taking part in nationwide protests in 2019 and accused of supporting the opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK).
The letter, endorsed by several renowned sporting figures including tennis legend Martina Navratilova and swimmer Sharron Davies, expressed grave concern over Iran’s increasing use of the death penalty as a political weapon and called for immediate international intervention to prevent the execution.
Vafaei Sani, hailing from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was arrested in March 2020 and has since spent five years in prison, reportedly enduring torture and long periods of solitary confinement.
His case has drawn widespread condemnation from global human rights organisations, with Amnesty International describing his trial as grossly unfair and urging world bodies to hold Iran accountable for its expanding execution spree. The charges against him included “spreading corruption on Earth through arson and destruction of public property”, and though his death sentence was overturned twice, it was upheld on 4 October this year after a third review.
Among the other signatories were the UK’s Tracy Edwards, who skippered the first all-female crew in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race; former Australian football captain Craig Foster; and Bahram Mavaddat, a member of Iran’s 1978 World Cup squad. They collectively emphasised that the punishment of Vafaei Sani represented a broader pattern of silencing dissenting voices within the country.
The letter also recalled previous cases of Iranian athletes executed for their beliefs, including football captain Habib Khabiri, volleyball player Fourouzan Abdi, and wrestling champion Navid Afkari, underscoring the regime’s history of targeting sporting figures.
Amnesty International’s recent data show that Iran executed at least 853 people in 2023, marking a 48% increase from 2022, while 972 executions were recorded last year – the highest since 2015 – and more than 800 executions have already taken place in 2025, revealing a growing pattern of political repression under the guise of justice.