Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, a 31-year-old Iranian boxing champion and coach currently held as a political prisoner, has been honored with the Magnitsky award for outstanding human rights activism. The award was presented at a ceremony in London on Thursday night while Vafaei Sani remains in Vakilabad prison in north-eastern Iran, facing a death sentence.
In a written message delivered from his cell, Vafaei Sani accepted the prize on behalf of the generation that is suffering the consequences of pursuing freedom. He stated that he accepts the honor in the name of those imprisoned, tortured, or sentenced to death for the perceived crime of aspiring to a free Iran. Addressing the pressure from the Iranian regime for televised confessions and repentance, he declared that he and his peers will never surrender or submit to humiliation.
Vafaei Sani was arrested in 2020 following his participation in nationwide democracy protests in 2019. He was accused of supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK). Following what Amnesty International described as a grossly unfair trial, he was convicted of “corruption on Earth” and sentenced to death for the third time in September 2024. The supreme court upheld this sentence on 4 October 2025. Throughout his detention, he has faced solitary confinement and reports of torture.
Sir William Browder, head of the Magnitsky Justice Foundation and chair of the awards committee, described Vafaei Sani’s case as emblematic of the broader plight of Iranians facing execution for their opposition to the regime. He emphasized that the international attention provided by the award is critical, noting that it becomes more difficult to carry out secret executions when the world is watching.
The situation for Iranian athletes remains critical, with seven currently at risk of execution, according to Zohreh Abdollahkhani, founder of Human Rights for Sport. Recent months have seen the executions of several athletes following anti-government protests, including mountaineer Ali-Sina Mostafavi on 14 October, taekwondo athlete Siavash Jamshidi Kheirabadi, and mixed martial arts fighter Gholamreza Khani Shakarab. 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. Within Vakilabad prison specifically, five individuals have been executed in connection to protests, with 15 others currently facing death sentences.
In his message, Vafaei Sani reaffirmed his commitment to his vision of a free and democratic Iran, where citizens can vote freely, gender equality is upheld, and discrimination based on ethnicity or religion is absent. He stated that he remains steadfast and will not bow before oppression until the people of Iran are free.
