“Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani” Sentenced to Death for Third Time
“Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani,” a political prisoner held in detention, has been sentenced to death for the third time.
Mohammad Javad Vafaei, born in 1395, a boxing champion at Mashhad training schools, was arrested following nationwide protests in Mashhad in 2019. The charges against him include “participation in November 2019 protests and protesting against the downing of the Ukrainian aircraft” and “propaganda against the system.”
In addition to the aforementioned charges, he was also accused of “corruption on earth” through “setting fires and destroying certain properties, including a government correction building,” charges which Mohammad Vafaei has rejected.
Following a court hearing, Mohammad Javad Vafaei was sentenced to death. Activists and human rights organizations reported torture of this protester during his detention and protested his death sentence. Eventually, once in December 2021 and again in June 2022, his death sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court.
Now “Babak Paknia,” the lawyer of political prisoner Mohammad Vafaei, has released a statement regarding the issuance of a new death sentence against him, writing: “Regarding Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, despite the court’s annulment at the Supreme Court with the majority opinion of the presiding judges (advisors of the third branch of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court), while opposing the reasoning of the Supreme Court judges, a death sentence has been issued for the third time on charges of corruption on earth. This sentence is subject to appeal.”
The issuance of his death sentence, and for the third time at that, comes as the ninth branch of the Supreme Court previously and for the second time objected to his death sentence and referred his case for re-examination to a peer branch.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran has also released a statement in response to the new death sentence for Mr. Vafaei, writing: “This political prisoner is a supporter of the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran. The courts of the Islamic Republic are ‘unjust’ and their sentences are tyrannical.”
The National Council of Resistance of Iran has called upon the High Commissioner and the Human Rights Council, the UN Rapporteur, the International Fact-Finding Committee, and the European Union and its member states to take immediate action regarding “the release of political prisoners and the rescue of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, as well as Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hasani among other political prisoners facing execution.”
