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Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, a 31-year-old Iranian boxing champion sentenced to death three times, received the Magnitsky award while imprisoned in Iran.
Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, an Iranian boxing champion, coach and political prisoner, has been given the Magnitsky award for outstanding human rights activist at a ceremony in London. He is 31 years old and has been sentenced to death three times. He is one of seven athletes at risk of execution in Iran.
Vafaei Sani accepted the award in a written message from Vakilabad prison in north-eastern Iran. He said: "I accept this award in the name of all those who, for the ‘crime’ of aspiring to a free Iran, have been imprisoned, tortured, threatened, or sentenced to death; in the name of my comrades in the resistance units and the generation that is paying the price of freedom with their lives."
He added: "The regime demands repentance, televised confessions and surrender from us. But our answer is clear: ‘We will never surrender; we will never submit to humiliation.’"
He also said: "I remain steadfast in my pledge, and I will not bow before oppression until the people of Iran are free."
Vafaei Sani was arrested in 2020 for taking part in nationwide democracy protests in 2019 and accused of supporting an opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK). He was convicted of “corruption on Earth” and sentenced to death for a third time in September 2024 after “a grossly unfair trial”, according to Amnesty International. The supreme court upheld his death sentence on 4 October 2025. Since his arrest he has been tortured and held in solitary confinement for extended periods.
According to the Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights, at least 710 people have been executed in Iran since the beginning of 2026, including 79 political and religious prisoners. In an October report, the organisation documented at least 106 death sentences against January protest detainees, 35 of whom had already been executed. In Vakilabad prison, where Vafaei Sani is detained, five people have been executed linked to the protests and 15 others are facing death sentences.
Zohreh Abdollahkhani, founder of Human Rights for Sport, said: “The situation is really dire … We have seven athletes at risk of execution now, including Vafaei Sani.”
The award brings international attention to Vafaei Sani’s case while he remains under a death sentence in Iran. His supporters say recognition increases pressure to prevent his execution, while Iran’s judiciary continues to treat the death sentence as valid.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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