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Latest
updates on Karaj Detainees and imprisoned labour activists in Iran
As of July 19, 2012: Background
information: On Friday, 15th of June, 2012, at about 12 noon, 57 members
of the "Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers'
Organizations" were arrested by the agents of the intelligence
Ministry after security forces and plain clothes officers raided a house
in city of Karaj while the annual membership meeting of the
"coordinating committee" was underway. These labour activists
were brutally beaten by the security forces and transferred to Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj. The
majority of detainees, after going through serious interrogations and
insults, were released on June 16th exclusive of Ms. Mitra
Homayooni, Ms. Reyhaneh Ansari, and Messrs Alireza Asgari, Saeed
Marzaban, Cyrus Fathi, Masoud
Salimpour, Maziar Mehrpour, Jalil Mohammadi and Faramarz
Fetrat Nejad. As of July 12th, with the exception of Alireza Asgari and
Jalil Mohammadi the other seven detainees were released on heavy bails.
On Monday July 16, 2012, "Jalil Mohammad"
and "Ali Reza Asgari," were taken to the Karaj Trial Court- Branch
6 and then were transferred to "the Central Penitentiary of Karaj".
They were transferred
to the court with handcuffs and shackle.
Even though they were in very high spirits, they seemed unhealthy
and in bad shape physically, evidently they have been mistreated while
they were in detention. Thus far, there is no confirmed information about
the reasons that these two labour activists are held in custody.
In addition to the
above workers, well-known and veteran labour activists such
as Mahmoud Salehi, Khaled Hosseini, Ghaleb Hosseini, Mohammad Abdipour and Jalal
Hosseini were among the approximately sixty people who were arrested and
severely beaten. Many of the arrestees sustained serious injuries.
Mahmoud Salehi suffered a broken pelvis from the beatings and Khaled
Hosseini's hearing has been severely damaged.
We continue to
witness many labour activists brutally persecuted and unjustly imprisoned
in Iran, like Reza Shahabi, the executive board member and treasurer of
the Syndicate of the bus workers of the Municipality of Tehran, who after
two years of unjustifiable incarceration has been sentenced to 6 year
imprisonment; the appeal court has confirmed his sentence as well. Ali
Nejati of Sugarcane workers' union, and other well-known labour
activists, including Shahrokh Zamani, Mohmmad Jarahi, Behnam Ebrahimzadeh
and Ali Akhavan, continue to be imprisoned.
The raid on a
workers' annual meeting is absolutely outrageous and definitely
inexcusable; it is a gross violation of the most basic rights of workers
which is recognized by international conventions and universal human
rights.
IASWI has called for and organized
a number of immediate urgent actions in different countries in
response to the raid on workers' meeting. Demonstrations took place at
Iranian embassies and other locations in Canada, France, England, Sweden,
Germany, Denmark, etc. Various trade unions and labour and progressive
organizations supported and took part in these solidarity actions. The
urgent action on Karaj Raid will continue until the release of Alireza
Asgari and Jalil Mohammadi.
We
call on all workers and labour organizations internationally to intensify
pressures on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and demand
respect for workers' and human rights in Iran including the right to
organize, assemble and freedom of association and expression and to free
all jailed labour activists.
Please
send your protests letters to:
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
CC: [email protected]
IASWI:
www.workers-iran.org / [email protected]
_________________________________________________________________________
International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran
(IASWI)
[email protected]
www.etehadbinalmelali.com
www.workers-iran.org.
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