More than 20 Olympic medallists, coaches and other international athletes, including the former tennis player Martina Navratilova and the swimmer Sharron Davies, have signed a public appeal calling for a halt to the execution of a boxing champion and coach, Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, who is on death row in Iran.
30 year old Vafaei Sani, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was arrested in March 2020 for taking part in nationwide protests in 2019 and accused of supporting an opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK). He has spent five years in prison, where he has allegedly been tortured and kept in solitary confinement.
Amid growing international concern over the Iranian government’s growing use of capital punishment as a tool of oppression, the strongly-worded letter condemns the Iranian regime’s decision to uphold Vafaei Sani’s death sentence.
“Sport is meant to inspire hope, unity, and courage,” the signatories wrote. “The execution of a champion for his political views is a direct assault on these values and a warning to every athlete who dares to speak out.
“We call on the United Nations, international sports federations and governments to act immediately to save the life of Mohammad Javad. The world must not stand by while Iran silences its champions.”
The letter said Vafaei Sani’s case was not an isolated one and noted Iran’s history of executing athletes for their beliefs, including Habib Khabiri, captain of the national football team, and Fourouzan Abdi, captain of the national women’s volleyball team. In 2020, Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old Iranian wrestling champion, was also executed.
Other signatories to the letter include the UK’s Tracy Edwards, who skippered the first all-female crew in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, and was the first woman to receive the Yachtsman of the Year Trophy; the former captain of the Australian football team Craig Foster; and Bahram Mavaddat, a footballer who was in the Iranian squad for the 1978 World Cup.
According to the Guardian newspaper, the charges against Vafaei Sani included “spreading corruption on Earth through arson and destruction of public property”. His sentence has been overturned twice, but on October 4 it was upheld on the third occasion. His trial was condemned as “grossly unfair” by human rights organisations, including Amnesty International.
The appeal to halt Vafaei Sani’s execution comes after a 2023 letter to the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, signed by more than 100 human rights experts and organisations, calling for action to prevent the athlete’s execution.
Amnesty International believes there is an “execution crisis in Iran, which has reached horrific proportions”. In 2023, authorities executed at least 853 people, a 48% increase on 2022. Last year, Amnesty recorded 972 executions, marking the highest number since 2015. More than 800 people have been executed so far in 2025.
Political prisoners and dissidents are considered targets, especially in the aftermath of the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising. Experts say the Iranian authorities have used the death penalty to suppress dissent, to instil fear among the population, and to tighten their grip on power.