London, 12 November 2026 – Iranian boxing champion and political prisoner Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani was honored with the 2026 Magnitsky Award for Outstanding Human Rights Activist at a ceremony in London on Thursday night. The Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign presented the award while he remains on death row in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad.
Nov 12: Iranian boxer on death row receives 2026 #MagnitskyAward.
A message by #MohammadJavadVafaeiSani from the death row in Iran – “I accept the Magnitsky Award on behalf of the #ResistanceUnits of Iran”.
UK MP @BobBlackman introduced him at the ceremony.#StopExecutionsInIran pic.twitter.com/CrkucWexDY— Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) November 13, 2026
British Conservative MP Bob Blackman, chairman of the 1922 Committee and the British Committee for Iran Freedom, introduced Vafaei Sani. Earlier the same day in the House of Commons, Blackman welcomed the award and urged the UK government to take action to save Vafaei Sani’s life. At the ceremony, he stated: “Iran cannot expect normal relations with the UK or the free world while it continues to use executions as a means of repression.”
🚨 @BobBlackman, presenting the 2026 Magnitsky Award for Outstanding Human Rights Activist to Iranian boxer Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani:
“Iran cannot expect normal relations with the UK or the free world while it continues to use executions as a means of repression.”@FCDOGovUK https://t.co/Hnhuo6LxzV pic.twitter.com/DNWorFHXQ1
— M. Hanif Jazayeri (@HanifJazayeri) November 13, 2026
Unable to attend, Vafaei Sani was represented by his friend Mohammad Namdari, an aerospace engineer, who accepted the award and read a message from prison. In the message, Vafaei Sani said: “I accept the Magnitsky Award on behalf of the Resistance Units of Iran.” He added: “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. 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.’”
A message from Mohammad Namdari, a friend of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, after accepting the Magnitsky Award for Outstanding Human Rights Activist on his behalf in London on Thursday.
Namdari praised Vafaei Sani’s courage and determination in standing up to the Iranian regime. https://t.co/rPCbzb9dvB pic.twitter.com/ZBwEZrKopQ
— SIMAY AZADI TV (@en_simayazadi) November 13, 2026
Vafaei Sani, 31, a national boxing silver medalist and coach from Mashhad, was arrested in 2020 after participating in the November 2019 protests and supporting the MEK/PMOI. He has been sentenced to death three times on charges of “corruption on earth,” with the latest sentence upheld by the Supreme Court. He has reportedly faced torture and prolonged solitary confinement.
The award and Blackman’s parliamentary intervention have intensified international calls to halt his execution and end the use of capital punishment against political prisoners in Iran.