🔸 Mohammad Javad Vafai Thani, the former boxing champion of Iran, who is awaiting execution in Vakil Abad Prison, Mashhad, received the Magnitsky Prize for Human Rights in the "Outstanding Human Rights Activist" category.
The Guardian newspaper reported on Friday, November 13 that this award was given to this 31-year-old athlete at a ceremony in London, and he announced in a written message from prison that he was accepting it on behalf of all those imprisoned, tortured or sentenced to death for trying to reach a free Iranian.
In this message he emphasized: "We will never give up and we will not submit to humiliation."
Wafai Sani, who was arrested following the interceptions in November 2018, was sentenced to death three times on charges of "supporting the Mujahideen Khalq organization" and "corruption of Pilarez". The Supreme Court also upheld his death sentence in 1404.
🔸 After the athlete's appeal was rejected, human rights organizations warned him of the imminent risk of execution. The Magnitsky Prize is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in custody, and has been awarded to activists, journalists and human rights defenders since 2015.