Sports personalities including Martina Navratilova and the swimmer Sharron Davies sign letter condemning Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani’s death sentence
More than 20 Olympic medallists, coaches and other international athletes, including the tennis player Martina Navratilova and the swimmer Sharron Davies, have signed a letter calling for a halt to the execution of a boxing champion and coach, who is on death row in Iran.
Amid growing international outrage over Iran’s escalating use of capital punishment as a tool of oppression, the strongly worded letter condemns the Iranian regime’s decision to uphold the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.
Vafaei Sani, 30, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was arrested 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 been tortured and kept in solitary confinement.
“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.
