Urgent Action Needed: Reza Shahabi Will Stay In Prison Until December 22, 2018

According to the prosecutor’s office, stated to Reza Shahabi’s wife on August 12, 2017, Shahabi has to be in prison until December 22, 2018. This is outrageous. Strong condemnations and urgent actions needed to push back against the continued targeting of Reza Shahabi (Sample protest letter is attached)

Below is the link to the Vahed Syndicate’s latest statement in Farsi posted on its website. English translation is provided below and some photos (mostly recent) of Reza Shahabi and a sample protest letter are attached. Some of the attached photos are related to a protest, organized by the Vahed Syndicate, against the non-delivery of the residential buildings by the housing cooperative unit of the company in front of the central office of Tehran’s Bus company, which took place on July 31, 2017.

http://vahedsyndica.com/archive/2792

Continued pressure on Syndicate of Workers of Vahed Company / Pressure on Reza Shahabi

According to the prosecutor’s office, stated to Reza Shahabi’s wife, this incarcerated toiling worker, must be in prison until December 22, 2018.

Despite the fact that the medical leave is included as part of a prison term, the prosecutor’s office has suspended five months of medical leave for this imprisoned worker, even though it had previously been approved by the coroner’s office. In addition, while serving his prison sentence, a new case was filed against him, and the court sentenced Shahabi to another one year jail to be in effect immediately after the previous conviction ends, and thus Shahabi has to be in prison for another year and five months until December 22, 2018.

The prosecutor’s claim of a five-month absence from Shahabi’s six-year imprisonment is made contrary to a letter Shahabi saw (at Rajee Shahr prison on August 8^th ) according to which his last day of imprisonment was on Shahrivar 18, 1394 (September 9, 2015). Shahabi entered Rajaee Shahr prison on Wednesday, August 9th, and so far his family and colleagues have not been able to contact him.

Syndicate of Workers of Vahed Company Strongly condemns the continuing pressure on the Syndicate and the imprisonment of a member of the syndicate board, calling for an immediate release of Reza Shahabi and the annulment of sentences against him and other board members of our syndicate, Mr. Ebrahim Madadi and Mr. Davoud Razavi, as well as other imprisoned workers and labour activists.

Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Vahed Syndicate)

August 12, 2017

Translated by IASWI:

International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI)

August 14, 2017

Sample Protest letter:

Reza Shahabi must be immediately and unconditionally released.

I (we) are writing to protest the continued persecution of Reza Shahabi, the executive board member and treasurer of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran Bus Workers’ Company, who has been incarcerated again as of August 9, 2017. According to the prosecutor’s office, stated to Reza Shahabi’s wife, Shahabi has to be in prison until December 22, 2018.

Reza Shahabi was arrested in June 2010 while he was on the job, driving a bus; he was violently assaulted in front of bus riders and incarcerated in Evin prison’s ward 209. After spending nineteen months in solitary confinement he was given six years of prison sentence, banned from any union activities for five years and a financial fine of seven and half million Tomans by branch 15 of the revolutionary court. Due to extensive physical stress and tortures during interrogations, Mr. Shahabi suffered from back and neck dislocation and had to go under surgery twice. After enduring prison for years he had been under medical leave of absence based on coroner’s recommendation. It should be noted that during his long incarceration Mr. Shahabi had to resort to hunger strike, four separate times, in protesting against lack of medical attention to his deteriorating health conditions and the growing numbness of the left side of his body. His last hunger strike, to protest against his transfer to Rajaee Shahr prison in City of Karaj, lasted fifty-two days. Mr. Shahabi was prosecuted again in January of 2015 based on charges of “propagating against the system” – related to the infamous attack of the security forces on Evin prison’s ward 350 on April 17, 2014 – and sentenced to an additional year in prison, and this verdict was upheld in an appeals court.

I (we) strongly condemn the continued targeting and unjust re-incarceration of Reza Shahabi. I (we) also denounce ongoing persecution and arrests of labour activists in Iran. I (we) demand the immediate and unconditional freedom of Reza Shahabi and all other detained labour activists in Iran.

Name:

Organization/Position:

PLEASE SEND protest letters to:

· Leader of the Islamic Republic
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
Twitter: @khamenei_ir (English) or @Khamenei_fa (Persian)
Email: [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
info @humanrights –iran .ir;