The Iran Human Rights Center reported that the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, a thirty-year-old boxer and political prisoner held in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad, was once again upheld by the country’s Supreme Court after his request for a retrial was rejected.
Announcing this news, the Iran Human Rights Center wrote that the rejection of Vafaei Sani’s retrial request had been formally communicated to him.
Quoting an informed source, this human rights website wrote: “After this notification, in a call from the prison, Vafaei Sani’s family was informed that his case had been sent to the Mashhad Office for the Enforcement of Sentences. The mother of this political prisoner was unexpectedly granted permission for an in-person visit.”
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The informed source added: “Taken together, these developments, along with the final confirmation of the sentence and the transfer of the case to the enforcement office, indicate that this political prisoner’s situation has reached a worrying stage.”
Earlier, on November 27, Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv and a former world boxing champion, had called in a letter for the halt of the execution of this political prisoner.
On November 6, a group of well-known foreign and Iranian athletes, in a joint statement addressed to the United Nations, international sports federations, and governments, warned of the imminent execution of Vafaei Sani and called for saving the athlete’s life.
Vafaei Sani’s death sentence had previously been overturned twice by the Supreme Court, but in recent months it was upheld by Branch Nine of the court.
Following this decision, his defense attorney, Babak Paknia, submitted another request for a retrial, which according to HRANA, a human rights news agency, was ultimately rejected.
On December 7, Paknia wrote on the social media platform X: “Given the finality of the verdict, we will use all our efforts to obtain approval for a renewed review in the Supreme Court, and these efforts will not stop; from the bottom of my heart and with full conviction, I say that this young man deserves a second chance at life.”
Security forces of the Iranian regime arrested Vafaei Sani in March 2020 following the bloody November protests in Mashhad and transferred him to Vakilabad Prison.
This protesting citizen was sentenced to death about two years later, in January 2022, by the Mashhad Revolutionary Court on the charge of “corruption on earth through arson and destruction of public property.”
At present, in addition to prisoners convicted of ordinary crimes who are executed daily in Iran’s prisons, about 70 prisoners across the country are facing confirmation or implementation of death sentences on political charges.
Additionally, more than 100 other individuals face the risk of receiving death sentences on similar charges, among whom 18 people have been sentenced to death for alleged cooperation with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the largest opposition group.
