Iranian boxer on death row wins human rights award as athletes push to save his life

Iranian boxer and coach Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani has won the 2026 Magnitsky Award for Outstanding Human Rights Activist, drawing renewed attention to his death sentence. The award is due to be presented on his behalf in London, while athletes and human rights groups continue urging Iranian authorities to spare his life.

Vafaei Sani was arrested in 2020 after protests in 2019 and accused of supporting the opposition and committing arson and property damage. Iran’s Supreme Court overturned his death sentence twice before it was imposed again in September 2024 and upheld in October 2025; a stay of execution announced in December 2025 paused the execution but did not overturn the conviction. Supporters including Martina Navratilova, Riley Gaines and the World Boxing Council have called for international intervention, while rights advocates have criticised the proceedings and the charge of “corruption on earth”.