Dozens of human rights activists have urged Volker Turk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, to intervene and try to halt the imminent execution of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, who was arrested in Iran in 2020 following unrest over a sharp hike in gas prices.
The plea, signed by 85 lawyers, human rights activists, and NGO representatives, urges Turk to step in publicly and exert whatever pressure possible to prevent the execution of the 27-year-old former boxing champion.
The Iranian Human Rights Center reported on July 20 that Vafaei Sani had been informed his death sentence is now definite and that he has been moved to an undisclosed location. It added there is currently a lack of information regarding his status and whereabouts, leading to fears authorities are preparing to carry out his death sentence.
The United Nations Human Rights Office confirmed receipt of the letter and said it is under review.
Vafaei Sani was arrested in March 2020 following his participation in protests over a sudden gas price hike in November of the previous year. He was accused of "instigating and deliberately causing damage to certain sites, inclusive of governmental edifices."
Babak Paknia, the lawyer handling his case, stated in December 2022 that the court found Vafaei Sani guilty of "corruption on Earth" and subsequently sentenced him to death.
Since being sent to prison, he has reportedly been subjected to torture in an effort to extract a confession that he supports the People's Mujahedin of Iran, which is outlawed in Iran.
The rate of executions in Iran has been rising sharply, particularly in the wake of widespread protests that swept across the country last year following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in police custody for an alleged head scarf violation.
Amnesty International says the regime in Tehran executes more people than any other country in the world other than China, while the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, a Washington-based organization specializing in Iranian human rights research, said in a recent report that 135 executions were carried out in Iran in May alone.
The letter to Turk from the human rights activists says the wave of executions is a "ruthless attempt by the Islamic republic authorities to instil fear and quell a population that is no longer prepared to tolerate a corrupt and tyrannical regime."