{"id":4978,"date":"2026-06-06T01:32:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T22:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/olympians-urge-leaders-to-stop-irans-execution-of-star-athletes\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T01:32:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T22:32:44","slug":"olympians-urge-leaders-to-stop-irans-execution-of-star-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/olympians-urge-leaders-to-stop-irans-execution-of-star-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympians Urge Leaders to Stop Iran’s Execution of Star Athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to New York Post<\/em>, Sani<\/strong>, a 31-year-old boxing champion and coach, has been held as a political prisoner since his arrest by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in March 2020. His detention followed his involvement in the November 2019 nationwide protests that erupted after the regime suddenly hiked gas prices.<\/p>\n

The Iranian judiciary has charged Sani with “corruption on earth,” a capital offense under the country’s Islamic legal system that carries an automatic death sentence.<\/p>\n

Tennis Legend and Olympic Swimmers Lead Appeal<\/h2>\n

The letter calling for intervention has been signed by 24 athletes, including nine Olympians and five Iranians. Leading the effort are women’s tennis legend Martina Navratilova<\/strong> and British swimming gold medalist Sharron Davies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The athletes are demanding that the United Nations, international sports federations, and national governments take immediate action to halt what they describe as a systematic campaign of terror against Iranian dissidents.<\/p>\n

The world must not stand by while Iran silences its champions,<\/em> the letter states, as New York Post<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n

Wave of Executions Targets Champion Athletes<\/h2>\n

The letter highlights a disturbing pattern of Iranian authorities executing star athletes who dare to oppose the Ayatollah’s regime. Since mid-March, Iran has conducted what the signatories describe as a horrific spree of executions targeting political dissidents, representing one of the most severe crackdowns in three decades.<\/p>\n

Among recent victims was 19-year-old champion wrestler Saleh Mohammadi<\/strong>, whose execution in March sparked global outrage. The regime also executed Sasan Azadvar Joonaghan<\/strong>, a 21-year-old karate champion, following what the letter describes as unfair trials and coerced confessions.<\/p>\n

History of Athletic Persecution<\/h2>\n

The coalition points to Iran’s grim history of murdering athletes for their political beliefs. Habib Khabiri<\/strong>, captain of Iran’s national football team, was executed for his affiliation with the PMOI opposition group.<\/p>\n

Forouzan Abdi<\/strong>, captain of Iran’s national women’s volleyball team, was executed alongside 30,000 political prisoners during the 1988 massacre orchestrated by the Islamic regime.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Iranian wrestling champion Navid Afkari<\/strong> was executed after participating in peaceful protests in 2018, demonstrating the regime’s consistent pattern of using capital punishment to terrorize dissidents.<\/p>\n

International Coalition Demands Action<\/h2>\n

The diverse group of signees includes athletes from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Denmark, Ukraine, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Canada, and Iran itself. The coalition represents multiple sports including boxing, wrestling, tennis, swimming, football, karate, fencing, cycling, and rowing.<\/p>\n

Notable signatories include Craig Foster<\/strong>, former captain of Australia’s national football team; Moslem Eskandar Filabi<\/strong>, an Olympic gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling; and Monica Aksamit<\/strong>, an Olympic bronze medalist in saber fencing from the United States.<\/p>\n

The athletes are calling on world governing powers to recognize that the theocratic regime is exploiting regional tensions to suppress growing dissent within Iran, using execution as a tool to instill fear and prevent another popular uprising.<\/p>\n

With information from New York Post<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A coalition of Olympic champions led by Martina Navratilova has appealed to international bodies to stop Iran from executing boxing champion Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani for protesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[5437,4601,96,5435,5434,5436,5438],"nfg_topic":[135],"class_list":["post-4978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-boxing","tag-death-penalty","tag-iran","tag-martina-navratilova","tag-mohammad-javad-vafaei-sani","tag-olympic-athletes","tag-political-prisoner","nfg_topic-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4978"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=4978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}