He was first arrested in early 2020 for participating in nationwide anti-government protests in November 2019. By Shiryn Ghermezian, The AlgemeinerAn Iranian boxing champion, coach, and political prisoner who is facing execution in Iran has been named the winner of the 2026 Magnitsky Human Rights Award for Outstanding Human Rights Activist for his courage in standing against political repression, it was announced on Monday.Boxing coach and national silver medalist Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, 31, is the recipient of the prestigious award given by the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign.Award organizers said the athlete’s case “has become a symbol of the persecution of peaceful dissent and the suppression of fundamental human rights in Iran.”They also noted his subjection to physical and psychological torture in Iranian prison, prolonged solitary confinement, and multiple threats of execution.The award was formally presented at a ceremony in London on Thursday night.Established in 2015, The Magnitsky Awards honors courageous journalists, politicians, and activists who defend human rights.The Magnitsky Awards are named after Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in Russian police custody after exposing government corruption.Vafaei Sani wrote a message from Vakilabad prison in northeastern Iran that was shared at the awards ceremony on Thursday, according to The Guardian.The athlete, who is from Mashhad, said in his written message he will “never surrender” and that he accepts the honor on behalf of “the generation that is paying the price of freedom with their lives.”“I accept this 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; in the name of my comrades in the resistance units and the generation that is paying the price of freedom with their lives,” he added, as cited by The Guardian.“The regime demands repentance, televised confessions and surrender from us. But our answer is clear: ‘We will never surrender; we will never submit to humiliation.’”Vafaei Sani also noted that he longs for “a free and democratic Iran … where the people vote freely, women and men are equal, there is no discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, religion or belief, and no one is imprisoned or executed for political opposition.”“I remain steadfast in my pledge, and I will not bow before oppression until the people of Iran are free,” he stated.Vafaei Sani was sentenced to death row three times in Iran and has spent more than six years in prison in his home country.He was first arrested in early 2020 for participating in nationwide anti-government protests in November 2019.Iranian authorities charged him with “corruption on earth,” and accused him of supporting the Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).Iran’s Supreme Court overturned his death sentence twice but in September 2024, the Mashhad Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death for a third time after a trial described by Amnesty International as “grossly unfair.”Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the sentence on Oct. 4, 2025, and Vafaei Sani remains on death row despite legal and international appeals. In December 2025, his request for a retrial was rejected.Well-known athletes, Olympic medalists, and coaches have all supported efforts to prevent his execution.In 2023, human rights and legal experts, 110 international NGOs, current and former United Nations officials, and Nobel laureates wrote an open letter to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, asking him to intervene and prevent the athlete’s death sentence from being carried out.In November 2025, the World Boxing Council called on the UN and the International Olympic Committee to intervene on behalf of Vafaei Sani.A month later, the Sport & Rights Alliance presented the athlete’s case again to the International Olympic Committee.The post Boxer on death row in Iran wins human rights award, vows he will ‘not bow before oppression’ appeared first on World Israel News.