Mahmoud Salehi Rearrested!
April 9, 2007- According to the official news agency ILNA, Mr. Mohammad Sharif, Salehi’s lawyer, has announced that his client, Mr. Mahmoud Salehi, was arrested today in the City of Saqez. He was summoned to the prosecutor’s office this morning and then was transferred to an unknown location. Mahmoud Salehi has been facing numerous charges and persecutions since May Day 2004 following his arrest, along with a number of other labour activists, in City of Saqez for organizing a May Day celebration. Salehi had been sentenced to 4 year imprisonment for “assembly and conspiracy to commit a crime” but this sentence was appealed by his lawyer and his last appeal trial was held on March 11, 2007 but no official verdict has yet been given. According to interviews by Salehi’s wife, Najibeh Salehzadeh and his colleague, Mr. Jalal Hosseini, Salehi did not sign the summon in protest to his arrest. Najibeh Salehzadeh, in an interview with Sedaye Nou Radio in Sidney, Australia has expressed serious concerns about Salehi’s health conditions as he has severe kidney problems. Jalal Hosseini has also been summoned to the Saqez prosecutor’s office on April 10, 2007.
The final appeal hearings for Mahmoud Salehi, Mohsen Hakimi, Jalal Hosseini and Borhan Divargar were held on Sunday, March 11, 2007 at the Kurdistan Province Court of Appeal, Division 7, and they were awaiting their verdict. The Saqez revolutionary Court had previously sentenced Salehi to 4 years imprisonment, while Jalali, Hakimi and Divargar were each sentenced to two years jail. Mr. Sharif also reported that he has not seen any court order or decision on this case following the appeal on March 11th.
More updates to come soon.
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