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Osanloo sentenced to one more year prison.
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Reza Shahabi still held incommunicado.
August 11, 2010- Mansour Osanloo, president of the
board of directors of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus
Company (a public transit company owned by Tehran Municipal government
with about 17000 employees) has been sentenced this week to one year
imprisonment by the City of Karaj Islamic Revolutionary Court for "propaganda
against the system". Mr. Osanloo has been subject to increasing
harassment in recent months and was put on trial recently at Karaj
Revolutionary court. Osanloo had also been charged with "connection
with the opponents of the system". He has gone through all this in
recent months while he has been in prison for the past three years.
According to a statement issued by Vahed Syndicate on August 10, 2010,
Mr. Osanloo's lawyers will appeal this new sentence against him within
the next 20 days.
Reza Shahabi, the
Vahed Syndicate's Treasurer, was arrested on June 12, 2010 and is still
imprisoned incommunicado. In a statement issued by Vahed Syndicate,
serious concerns have been raised about Reza Shahabi's health and safety.
The statement says: "Reza Shahabi, a member of the board of
directors of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and
Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed), was arrested and imprisoned on
June 12, 2010, and was only allowed to speak to his wife and
children by telephone three times for the first month of his detention.
In the telephone conversations with the family, he indicated that he
suffered from neck and back injuries. Since then nobody has gained any
information about his situation. His family have
approached the Public Prosecutor and the Court of
First Instance several times. Also, his solicitor has contacted the
Public Prosecutor's office, but has not received any news about Reza’s
circumstances. Uncertainty about his situation has made his family
anxious about his well-being. The Syndicate of
Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed), which was
established to defend workers' basic rights, condemns the arrest and the denial of information about its member and demands his
immediate and unconditional release. "
Numerous campaigns in recent days have been launched
in Iran and abroad for the release of Reza Shahabi who is a highly
respected labour activist and one of the key leaders of Vahed Syndicate
for the past few years. (See below for recent campaigns in support of
Reza Shahabi and other jailed workers)
Sample Protest
Letter (Updated August 11, 2010):
Free Tehran bus workers'
leaders now
Free all jailed workers
now
I (we) am (are) writing this to demand an immediate
and unconditional freedom of all imprisoned representatives and members
of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company and the
Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers' Organizations and other
independent labour activists in Iran.
As of this time, three leaders and elected
representatives of Vahed Syndicate are in prison:. Mansour Osanloo,
Syndicate's president of the board of director (serving five year jail
sentence since 2007, Ebrahim Madadi, Vice-President (serving 3.5 year jail
sentence since late 2007); and Reza Shahabi, Treasurer (arrested on June
12, 2010).
In addition, I (we) have been informed that Mansour
Osanloo has been sentenced to one year imprisonment by the City of Karaj
Islamic Revolutionary Court on August 10, 2010 for "propaganda
against the system". Mr. Osanloo has been subject to increasing
harassment in recent months and was put on trial recently at Karaj
Revolutionary court. He has gone through all this while he has been jailed
for the past three years.
Mr. Saeed Torabian, Public Relations director of the
Syndicate, was arrested and detained on June 9, 2010 and released on
heavy bail on July 20, 2010. Mr. Torabian is charged with "acting
against national security" and "propaganda against the
system". Reza Shahabi has been held incommunicado in the Evin
prison and his family are extremely concerned about his condition.
Moreover, many member of the Coordinating Committee to
Help Form Workers' Organization in different cities have been targeted
and persecuted by authorities and are facing charges and jail sentences. There
are many other independent labour activists in prisons and/or persecuted.
Behnam Alizadeh and Mehdi Farahi Shandiz are jailed labour activist
arrested on respectively on June 12, 2010 in Tehran and transferred to
Evin prison and on June 8, 2010 and transferred to the deadly Kahrizak
prison. Mr. Kaveh Gol Mohammadi, a member of the Coordinating Committee, have
been transferred to Sanandaj's Central prison on July 31, 2010 to serve
his four month sentence for his membership with this labour organization.
I (we) demand immediate and unconditional freedom of
Osanloo, Madadi and Shahabi, Alizadeh, Farahi Shandiz, Gol Mohammadi and
others. I (we) condemn this new round of attack against Tehran bus
workers' union and the Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers' Organizations
and the continuous gross attacks on human and workers’ rights in Iran. I
(we) demand the immediate and unconditional freedom of all labour
activists and political prisoners and call on the government to respect
the right to organize, assemble and freedom of association and
expression.
Name:
Organization:
Position:
Send Copy of your Protest Letters to:
[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]
_______________________________________
International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran
(IASWI)
[email protected]
www.etehadbinalmelali.com
www.workers-iran.org
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