Athletes Sign Letter Demanding Iran Halt Executions of Sports Champions

Athletes Sign Letter Demanding Iran Halt Executions of Sports Champions

A coalition of 24 athletes, including nine Olympians, has signed an open letter calling on the United Nations, international sports federations, and governments to intervene and prevent the execution of Iranian boxing champion Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, 31, who remains on death row in Iran.

Sani, a boxing champion and coach, was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in March 2020 following his participation in nationwide protests that began in November 2019 over a sudden rise in fuel prices. Iranian authorities charged him with “corruption on earth,” a capital offense under Iranian law. The letter, whose signatories include tennis champion Martina Navratilova and British Olympic swimming gold medalist Sharron Davies, states that the world must not remain silent while Iran “silences its champions.”

The letter situates Sani’s case within a broader pattern of state violence against athletes and dissidents. Since mid-March 2026, Iran has carried out a series of executions of political prisoners following what the letter describes as unfair trials and coerced confessions. Among those executed were Saleh Mohammadi, a 19-year-old national wrestling champion, and Sasan Azadvar Joonaghan, a 21-year-old karate champion. The letter also references the 2020 execution of wrestling champion Navid Afkari, who had participated in peaceful protests in 2018, and recalls the execution of Habib Khabiri, identified as captain of Iran’s national football team, and Forouzan Abdi, described as captain of Iran’s national women’s volleyball team, who was among approximately 30,000 political prisoners executed in 1988.

The letter calls for immediate action by international bodies and presents Sani’s case as an ongoing and urgent matter. With five Iranian athletes among the 24 signatories, the coalition frames its appeal as a demand for structural intervention rather than a symbolic gesture, urging sports governing bodies specifically to use their authority to press for the release of athletes currently imprisoned or facing execution in Iran.