Key facts
- Vafaei Sani, 31, has been sentenced to death three times and is one of seven Iranian athletes at risk of execution, per Human Rights for Sport.
- Amnesty International said Vafaei Sani was convicted of "corruption on Earth" after what it called a grossly unfair trial.
- The Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights said at least 710 people have been executed in Iran since the start of 2026, including 79 political and religious prisoners.
- Hengaw documented at least 106 death sentences against January protest detainees, 35 of whom had already been executed.
- Five people linked to the protests have been executed in Vakilabad prison, where Vafaei Sani is held, and 15 others face death sentences, per Hengaw.
- Sir William Browder, chair of the awards committee, said every time the world pays attention it becomes harder to kill Vafaei Sani quietly.
Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, an Iranian boxing champion, coach and political prisoner on death row, accepted the Magnitsky award for outstanding human rights activist at a ceremony in London on the night of November 12, 2026, in a written message read from Vakilabad prison in north-eastern Iran.
In the message he said he accepted the 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". He added: "We will never surrender; we will never submit to humiliation." He said he wanted "a free and democratic Iran" with free elections, equality between women and men and no imprisonment for political opposition, and that he would "not bow before oppression until the people of Iran are free".
Vafaei Sani, 31, was arrested in 2020 for taking part in nationwide democracy protests in 2019 and accused of supporting the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran. Amnesty International said he was convicted of "corruption on Earth" and sentenced to death for a third time in September 2024 after what the group called a grossly unfair trial. The supreme court upheld the death sentence on October 4, 2025. The report says he has been tortured and held in solitary confinement for extended periods since his arrest.
Sir William Browder, head of the Magnitsky Justice Foundation and chair of the awards committee, said Vafaei Sani's case was emblematic of many Iranians who face execution for standing against the government. "Most important, Mohammad Javad is still alive," he said. "That is why this award matters. Every time the world pays attention, it becomes harder to kill him quietly." The awards are named after the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in Russian police custody after exposing government corruption, and began in 2015.