A group of rights experts and nongovernmental organizations called on the United Nations to intervene and stop the execution of Iranian boxing champion Mohammad Javad Vafaei-Sani, Agency France Presse (AFP) reported on Thursday.
In a letter sent overnight, which was seen by Agence France-Presse, a total of 85 international rights advocates and groups, including a former head of the International Criminal Court, 19 current and former UN officials, former government ministers and seven Nobel laureates, urged UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk to “make an urgent public call for the Iranian authorities to halt” Vafaei-Sani’s imminent execution.
“We request your urgent public intervention to save the life of Iranian political prisoner [Vafaei-Sani],” the letter read.
According to the letter, Vafaei-Sani was moved on Wednesday to a secluded section of Vakilabad Prison in the city of Mashhad in northeast Iran after his death sentence was confirmed.
