Reports from Mashhad indicate that political prisoner Mohammad Javad Vafaei Thani has been sentenced to death for the third time. This political prisoner, a supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the country’s largest opposition group, is also one of Iran’s boxing champions. Iran’s judiciary has sentenced Mohammad Javad Vafaei Thani to death for the third time due to his support for the PMOI.
Mohammad Javad, 29 years old, a champion and boxing coach at clubs in Mashhad, was arrested in March 2020 in Mashhad and subjected to severe physical and psychological torture. In January 2022, the fourth branch of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death on charges of “corruption on earth, arson, and destruction of specific buildings, including the government’s Disciplinary Organization building.”
This sentence was referred to the second branch of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court by a branch of the Supreme Court in December 2022. In August 2023, this court sentenced Mohammad Javad to death for the second time. In June 2024, the Supreme Court referred the case to another court. On Wednesday, September 18, 2024, for the third time, two judges named Saadi Makan and Yazdan Khahar issued the death sentence, which was conveyed to Mohammad Javad in written form. This ruling was issued even though the regime’s judiciary laws were ignored in the process.
Earlier this week, the 26th branch of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced two PMOI supporters, Behrooz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, to death.
In an effort to suppress growing public outrage and in fear of the increasing youth support for the PMOI and resistance, the Iranian regime sees torture and execution as the only solution. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) on the UN High Commissioner, the Human Rights Council, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, the international fact-finding committee, the European Union, and its member states to take immediate action to free political prisoners and save the lives of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Thani, Behrooz Ehsani, Mehdi Hassani, and other prisoners facing execution.
