The Islamic Republic of Iran is engaged in an ongoing persecution and repression of labour activists across the country. Many labour activists and workers’ rights defenders are being prosecuted and imprisoned across Iran.
Veteran labour activist, Mahmoud Salehi, has been in and out of jail for the past thirty years. He was re-imprisoned on October 28th, 2017. Salehi suffers from serious heart and kidney diseases; He has to do kidney dialysis in the hospital twice a week. The health of Mahmoud Salehi will be in grave danger in prison.
Reza Shahabi, a well-known executive board member of Tehran bus workers’ union, has been in and out of prison since 2010. He was re-imprisoned in August 2017. Reza Shahabi has serious health issues as a result of years of mistreatment and torture during his interrogations.
Teachers Esmail Abdi, Mahmoud Beheshti Langroodi and Mohsen Omrani, continue to be incarcerated. Many teacher activists have been put on trial in recent years and leaders of Teachers’ Trade Association have been viciously targeted by the Iranian judiciary and intelligence forces.
In addition, many labour activists in Iran are under suspended sentences or await trials and are suspende
d or expelled from their workplace as the result of their labour activities, including many member of the bus workers’ union in Tehran and some leaders of the Syndicate of Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company Workers. There are hundreds of students and women’s and human rights’ defenders who are incarcerated in various prisons across Iran. These prisons lack the most basic health and safety standards.
We call on all progressive forces, labour and human organizations and concerned individuals to strongly condemn continuous arrests and repression of labour activists and political prisoners in Iran and demand their immediate and unconditional freedom.
For more information: www.workers-iran.org
International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI)
November 3, 2017
[email protected];
www.workers-iran.org;
https://twitter.com/IASWIinfo