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More than two dozen Olympic medal winners, trainers and other world-class competitors have endorsed a statement calling for a end to the capital punishment of a champion boxer and trainer, who is on death row in the country.

Growing International Outrage

During rising global condemnation over the country's expanding employment of capital punishment as a tool of repression, the strongly worded letter censures the authorities's ruling to uphold the execution order of the athlete.

The boxer, three decades old, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was arrested for being involved in nationwide protests in 2019 and charged of backing an resistance movement. He has endured 60 months in incarceration, where he has been abused and held in seclusion.

“Sport is designed to encourage hope, solidarity, and fortitude,” the supporters expressed. “The capital punishment of a champion for his beliefs is a blatant attack on these principles and a warning to any competitor who dares to speak out.

Record of Executing Athletes

The letter noted that the boxer's circumstances was not unique and emphasized the country's past of sentencing to death sports champions for their convictions, including Habib Khabiri, skipper of the soccer squad, and a women's sports leader, skipper of the women's volleyball squad. In two thousand twenty, a wrestling champion, a 27-year-old national wrestling champion, was also executed.

Additional supporters to the statement comprise a yachting pioneer, who skippered the pioneering women's squad in a global yacht race and was the pioneering lady to earn a prestigious yachting trophy; the former leader of the Australian football team Craig Foster; and a footballer, who was in the national team for the global tournament.

Apprehension and Flawed Legal Process

The boxer was arrested in early 2020. The accusations against him entailed “causing deterioration on Earth through arson and destruction of state assets”. His ruling has been overturned on two occasions but on 4 October it was confirmed on the latest review. His trial was condemned as “highly unjust” by rights defenders and bodies.

Call to United Nations

The appeal to stop the boxer's death sentence follows a previous appeal to the UN high commissioner for rights, endorsed by in excess of one hundred advocates and entities, calling for action to avert the competitor's execution.

Execution Crisis

According to reports, there is an “death penalty surge in the country, which has achieved horrific dimensions”. In the year 2023, authorities put to death at least over 850 people – a forty-eight percent rise on the previous year. Last year, data showed nearly a thousand executions, marking the maximum count since two thousand fifteen. In excess of 800 people have been sentenced so far in 2025.

Political prisoners and protesters are focus, notably in the aftermath of the 2022's uprising. Analysts say the Iranian authorities have utilized the death penalty to suppress opposition, create anxiety among the citizenry and reinforce their grip on power.