Iranian Regime Sentences PMOI Supporter and Boxing Champion Javad Vafaie to Death for Third Time

Iran regime’s Judiciary sentenced the imprisoned supporter of the PMOI and boxing champion, Javad Vafaie, to death for the third time

Call for urgent action to save Javad’s life and that of other political prisoners on death row

On Wednesday, September 18, the clerical regime’s judiciary notified political prisoner Mohammad Javad Vafaie Sani, a supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), of his death sentence for the third time in Mashhad prison. The so-called revolution court of Mashhad had issued this sentence.

Mohammad Javad, 29 years old, a boxing champion and coach at Mashhad’s clubs, was arrested in March 2020 in Mashhad and subjected to severe physical and psychological torture. In December 2021, the fourth branch of the “revolutionary court” in Mashhad sentenced him to death on charges of “corruption on earth” and “arson and destruction of specific places, including the building of the government’s disciplinary office.”

This sentence was referred to the second branch of the “revolutionary court” of Mashhad in December 2022 by one of the branches of the Supreme Court of the regime. In August 2023, this court once again sentenced Mohammad Javad to death. In June 2024, the Supreme Court referred the case to a parallel branch for reconsideration. On Wednesday, September 18, 2024, for the third time, two criminal judges named Saadi Makan and Yazdan Khahar issued and notified the written death sentence to Mohammad Javad. This ruling violates even the regime’s judiciary’s own legal protocols in such cases.

Earlier this week, the 26th branch of the “revolutionary court” in Tehran sentenced two other political prisoners, supporters of the PMOI, Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hasani, to death.

In response to the explosive public anger and the increasing support of the youth for the PMOI and the Resistance, the mullahs’ regime has resorted to torture and executions as its only means of control.

The Iranian Resistance calls on the UN High Commissioner, the Human Rights Council, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, the International Fact-Finding Committee, as well as the European Union and its member states, to take urgent action for the release of political prisoners and to save the lives of Mohammad Javad Vafaie Sani, Behrouz Ehsani, Mehdi Hasani, and other prisoners facing execution.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

19 September 2024