Condemn the Verdict of Imprisonment and Suspended Sentence Against Mahmoud Salehi!

Free Mahmoud Salehi Now!

 

April 9, 2007- According to reports by Mahmoud Salehi’s family and colleagues as well as a statement issued by the Coordinating Committee to Form Workers’ Organization and other organizations in Iran and abroad, a commanding officer in the Saqez security force appeared at Salehi’s work and asked him to appear at the office of the prosecutor to discuss issues related to this year’s celebration of international workers’ day with the governor and the prosecutor. However, in the prosecutor’s office, Mahmoud was told that the Kurdistan Appeal Court has reached the final verdict on his case and that he has been sentenced to one year imprisonment and also a three year suspended prison sentence. He was then immediately arrested without giving him a chance to speak to his lawyer or family.  Mahmoud protested against his arrest and the sentences against him and refused to sign the verdict. According to information received from the City of Saqez, Mahmoud’s wife, family and friends demanded to speak with Mahmoud but the authorities first refused but after they were told that the citizens of Saqez would be called to protest, they allowed Salehi to talk on the phone with his family, during which Salehi informed that he was being transferred to a prison in Sanandaj, the capital of the Kurdistan province. Authorities have informally suggested that Salehi might stay in Sanandaj for about a week and then might be transferred to another prison, probably in Ghorveh or Bijar, two other cities in the Kurdistan province.

 

Mr. Jalal Hosseini has also been summoned to the prosecutor’s office on April 10, 2007. It is anticipated that Hosseini as well as Mohsen Hakimi and Borhan Divargar would receive imprisonment or suspended sentences. Mahmoud along with Jalal Hosseini, Mohsen Hakimi, Borhan Divargar, Mohammad Abdipoor, Esmail Khodkam and Hadi Tanomand and many other workers were arrested on May 1st 2004 at the beginning of a rally in celebration of May Day in the City of Saqez, Kurdistan Province. The above labour activists, internationally known as Saqez Seven, went on hunger strike while in custody until they were released on heavy bail on May 12, 2004. While three of the above seven have since been acquitted, he remaining four continued to face numerous trials. They were awaiting the final verdicts.

 

Salehi had already predicted an unjust verdict and had warned about it in a letter that he had written to the ITUC’s General Secretary on March 21, 2007 (*Please see below). Salehi and his colleagues have gone through three years of arrests, mistreatments, trials and harassments just because of their labour activities and their attempts to celebrate the international workers’ day. The government authorities in Saqez acted unexpectedly and deceitfully on Salehi’s instantaneous imprisonment. It is widely believed that Salehi’s verdict and immediate arrest just prior to the upcoming May Day events in Iran was a political decision by the authorities. Iranian labour activists, including the newly formed Collaborative Council of Labour Organizations and Activists, with which Salehi was involved, have called on the Iranian working class to organize large May Day events on May First this year. The arrest and imprisonment of Salehi and yesterday’s arrests of about 45 teachers in Hamadan, in addition to all other anti-labour policies and practices of the government, are indicative of the regime’s intention of cracking down on protesters and labour activists. We are thus calling on all workers and labour and progressive organizations worldwide to support the struggles of their colleagues in Iran in any appropriate ways they possibly can.

 

Condemn the imprisonment of Mahmoud Salehi!

Free Mahmoud Salehi Now! 

 

More updates on Campaign to free Mahmoud Salehi and the updates on other Saqez labour activists will come soon. Meanwhile, it is absolutely critical to publicly state our strong denunciation of the unjust verdict against Salehi!

 

Sample Letter in Condemnation of the Imprisonment of Mahmoud Salehi

 

Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadjinejad,

President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: [email protected]
Fax: + 98 21 649 58 80

Re: Free Mahmoud Salehi Now!

I am writing this letter to express my condemnation concerning the verdict passed against Mahoud Salehi by the Kurdistan Court of Appeal. According to the latest news, Mahmoud Salehi, the former President of the Bakery Workers’ Association of the city of Saqez and a well-known labour activist in Iran, has been sentenced to one year imprisonment and a three year suspended prison sentence. Mr. Salehi was arrested on April 9, 2007 without any prior notice and was immediately transferred to the city of Sanandaj. His family and lawyer had not received any written judgment.

 

It is very clear that Salehi has been sentenced for his labour activities, particularly given the fact that the initial arrests and the final charges were made in connection with his attempts to participate in a May Day 2004 celebration in Saqez. I am outraged at this unjust verdict which shows that your government has disregarded the fundamental human and workers’ rights, such as freedom of association and the right to celebrate the International Workers’ Day.

I hereby ask you to intervene immediately to annul all the sentences passed against Mahmoud Salehi and release him immediately and unconditionally.

Print Name

 

CC: Ambassador Mohammad Reza Alborzi, Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Institutions in Geneva, Chemin du Petit-Saconnex 28, 1209 Geneva, Switzerland, Fax: +41 22 733 02 03, E-mail: [email protected]

CC: [email protected]

 

 

For more information, contact [email protected] or [email protected].

International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran

Background Information: www.workers-iran.org

http://www.etehadbinalmelali.com/INDEXI.htm

********************************************

 

*Dear Mr. Guy Ryder,

 

With warm greetings,

 

You have probably been informed that Jalal Hosseini, Mohsen Hakimi and I faced the appeal trial on Sunday, March 11, 2007 at the Division Seven of the Kurdistan Province Appeal Court.

 

I am writing to you about some of the issues that took place during the trial.  The three of us, along with our lawyer, Mr. Mohammad Sharif, according to the court’s summons, appeared at the Kurdistan appeal court at 9:00 am.  After some delays, our lawyer was told that Mr. Mohammad Mostofi, the presiding judge of the division 7 is on vacation. To follow the required procedure, Mr. Sharif informed the branch’s secretary of our presence in the court and the intention to leave but the secretary told us, “You should wait a little longer so I inform the court’s chief”. We waited until 10:05 am when they informed us that the hearing was going to take place. The hearing took place at 10:45 a.m. with judge Sadeghi presiding. In order for you to understand the importance of this shuffling I should give you brief background information about the role of these two judges in the delaying of our trials and persecutions of the arrested activists on May 1st 2004.

 

Mr. Sadeghi, at the time of our arrest on May Day 2004, was the prosecutor of the City of Saqez and our arrest order was issued by him. In the second round of our court hearings, in October 2006, which took place at the Saqez Revolutionary Court, he was the chief of justice department in the city of Saqez. In that trial, Mr. Shayegh, a substitute judge, sentenced me to 4 years imprisonments and Messrs Jalal Hosseini, Mohsen Hakimi and Borhan Divargar each to two years jail. All these sentences were confirmed after approval by Mr. Sadeghi. Now, the same person is the presiding judge of our appeal trial despite the fact that he was in charge of sentencing us in the first place.

 

It’s useful to briefly talk about Mr. Mohammad Mostofi, the presiding judge of the division 7 of the appeal court of Kurdistan Province, so you would realize why he was replaced with Mr. Sadeghi. You perhaps remember that at the first trial that was chaired by judge Tayari in Farvardin 1384 (April 2005) we were sentenced to the following: I was sentenced to five years jails and three years in exile in the city of Ghorveh. Mr. Jalal Hosseini was sentenced to three years, and Messrs Mohammad Abdipour, Mohsen Hakimi and Borhan Divargar each to two years imprisonment. Our lawyers protested against these sentences and appealed them. Mr. Mohammad Mostofi, who was the chief of the division 7 of the appeal court of the province, along with Mr. Hamid Reza Hassan Pour, who was the court counselor, fully acquitted us from all charges claimed by the Saqez court. In fact, our second trials were imposed on us after Mr. Mostofi had acquitted us.

 

My request is that to provide this letter to legal experts and inform them of the content of it, so they can inform us where in the world such trials have taken place. Has there been an appeal court presided by a judge that had also issued the original verdict? Have there been cases where the chief of the court is the same person that from the very beginning issued the arrest warrants against us for trying to organize the international workers day? Given such methods, could we expect just verdicts?

 

 

Respectfully yours,

 

Mahmoud Salehi- Saqez

1/1/ 1386

3/21/ 2007

 

cc: Mrs. Anna Biondi and Mr. Janek kuczkiewicz