A growing coalition of athletes, from tennis legend Martina Navratilova to Olympic swimmers and world champions, is turning Iran’s planned execution of boxer Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani into an international test of conscience. What began as a legal case inside a repressive system is now a global sports and human rights flashpoint.
Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, a 30 year old boxing champion and coach from Mashhad, has spent more than five years in prison after taking part in Iran’s 2019 anti government protests and allegedly supporting the opposition group MEK. His death sentence, based on charges of “spreading corruption on Earth” and arson, was overturned twice before being reinstated on 4 October, despite widespread criticism from human rights groups over what they describe as a grossly unfair trial and allegations of torture and prolonged solitary confinement.
That legal process might have stayed buried in Iran’s opaque judiciary if sport had not intervened. More than 20 Olympians, world champions and high profile athletes have now signed an open letter urging Iran to commute the sentence, warning that executing a champion for his political views crosses a line for the global sports community. Signatories reportedly include Navratilova, British swimmer Sharron Davies, round the world sailor Tracy Edwards, former Australian football captain Craig Foster and others tied to athlete advocacy networks.
Their argument is simple but powerful. Sport is supposed to be a space for excellence, discipline and shared identity across borders. Iran, they say, is turning it into a tool of fear. The letter situates Vafaei Sani’s case in a wider pattern, recalling previous executions of Iranian athletes including wrestler Navid Afkari, whose 2020 hanging after protest related charges sparked global outrage, and earlier cases involving a national football captain and women’s volleyball captain killed for political or ideological reasons.
That history matters because it shows this is not a one off injustice, it is a method. Amnesty International
