Press Release

For Immediate Release

Demonstrations Against Recent Brutal Executions in Iran

When: Friday, May 21, 2010 , 12:00 PM

Where: Outside the Islamic Republic of Iran Embassy in Ottawa

245 Metcalfe St., Ottawa

A rally will take place outside Iranian Embassy in Ottawa to condemn the brutal execution of the teacher, human rights activist and a member of the Iranian Teachers' Trade Association, Farzad Kamangar, along with four other political prisoners in Iran.

Mr. Farzad Kamangar, Mr. Ali Heydarian, Mr. Farhad Vakilie, Ms. Shirin Alamhouli and Mr. Mehdi Eslamian were all executed in Evin Prison on May 9, 2010. None of the lawyers nor the families of the defendants were aware of executions.  Even Bodies of the 5 executed political prisoners has not yet been delivered to their families as of this time.

Since execution of the above five political prisoners, Iranians inside and outside the country and progressive forces all over the world have been protesting on daily basis to show their strong opposition to repressive actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran. There was a general strike in Kurdistan province of Iran on May 13, 2010 to condemn these killings as four of the above including Farzad were of the Kurdish background.

Despite total absence of a fair judicial process, the fact that Mr Kamangar's appeal was still to be reviewed by the Supreme Court, though Mr Kamangar's lawyer had been told that the file had been lost, he has still been executed.

These brutal executions raises serious concerns about the fate of other political prisoners including jailed labour activists and teachers including Mansour Osanloo and Ebrahim Madadi, leaders of the Tehran Bus Workers' Union (Vahed Syndicate), and jailed teachers like Abdolreza Ghanbari, who, has been sentenced to death, Seyed Hashem Khastar, Rasoul Bedaghi, Abdollah Momeni, Mahmoud Beheshti Langeroudi, Ali Akbar Baghani, Mohammad Davari, Alireza Hashemi, Hossein Baastaninejad, and Ghorban Ahmadi ( all according to the latest statement by the Iranian Teachers' Trade Association).  There are hundreds of others students, women's rights', human rights' and political activists in prisons across Iran.

This rally is organized by the Council in Support of People's Struggles in Iran . It has also been endorsed by the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI)-Canada and many other labour and progressive organizations. Representatives of  Canadian and Iranian labour and human rights' groups will speak at the rally.

Condemn execution of political prisoners in Iran!

Free all political prisoners in Iran now!

Free all jailed labour and teacher activists now!

End torture and executions immediately!

For more information, please contact:

Council in Support of People's Struggles in Iran: [email protected]

IASWI:  [email protected]

Phone numbers: 647-449-4120 / 416-997-2945