Please send urgent protest letters to the Iranian government authorities demanding the immediate and unconditional freedom of all jailed and prosecuted labour activists.
Mahmoud Salehi, Reza Shahabi, Mahmoud Beheshti Langroodi and Esmail Abdi
We are writing this to protest against the Islamic Republic of Iran 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, who has been in and out of jail for the past thirty years, was re-imprisoned on October 28th, 2017. On November 3, 3017, Salehi suffered heart problems and was taken to the hospital from the prison. Salehi has lost both of his kidneys during his past imprisonment periods and must do kidney dialysis in the hospital twice a week. The life of Mahmoud Salehi will be in grave danger in prison.
Reza Shahabi, an executive board member of Tehran bus workers’ Syndicate (Vahed Syndicate), has been in and out of prison since 2010. He was re-imprisoned on August 9, 2017. Reza Shahabi has serious health issues as a result of years of mistreatment and torture during his interrogations. His last hunger strike in prison took 50 days. Reza Shahabi must be taken to a civil hospital with full facility for proper specialized treatment and freed unconditionally.
Esmail Abdi, a member of the board of directors of the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association (Tehran), is currently serving a six-year jail sentence, and his interrogators have been threatening to add his previous suspended sentences, which had been issued against him in 2010; in which case he must be in prison for more than twelve years in total. Abdi’s health during his detention and following his hunger strike has deteriorated considerably.
Mahmoud Beheshti Langroodi has been arrested and transferred to Evin prison on September 12, 2017 and the appeals court recently confirmed another 5 year jail term against him, which means that his total prison sentences are now 14 years. Mahmoud Beheshti Langroodi is a spokesperson for the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association (Tehran). He has been in and out of prison a number of times in recent years and all these years of persecution have taken their toll on his body.
Ebrahim Madadi and Davood Razavi, members of the board of directors of Tehran and suburbs bus workers’ syndicate, were arrested by the intelligence forces at their homes at the same time, in the early hours of Wednesday, April 29, 2015, and transferred to the Evin prison. After 22 days of detention in the solitary confinement of the ward 209 of Evin Prison, they were released on 100 million Toman bail. In February 2016, they were sentenced to a total of 10 years and three months imprisonment (five years and three months for Madadi and five years for Razavi) by the branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court. They have appealed these unjust sentences.
In addition, many labour activists in Iran are under suspended sentences or await trials and are threatened, suspended or expelled from their workplace as the result of their labour activities, including many other members of the bus workers’ syndicate in Tehran and some members of the Syndicate of Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company Workers.
We call on your government to put an end to arrests and repression of labour activists in Iran. We demand the immediate and unconditional freedom of all jailed labour activists and political prisoners in Iran.
Mahmoud Salehi in Hospital, Saqez, Nov 2017
PLEASE SEND protest letters to the electronic addresses below: Please also send them via the Iranian diplomatic representatives accredited to your country, if there is an Iranian diplomatic mission in your country. Although Iranian embassies’ addresses change frequently, please see the link below which might help: https://www.embassypages.com/iran
· Leader of the Islamic Republic
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
Twitter: @khamenei_ir (English) or @Khamenei_fa (Persian)
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
· President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Hassan Rouhani
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @HassanRouhani (English) and
@Rouhani_ir (Persian)
· The Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran – High Council of Human Rights [email protected];
· Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
Email: [email protected]
