Currently, many worker activists and numerous political
prisoners are in jail in Iran. Some of the worker activists in jail include:
Behnam
Ebrahimzadeh, a labour and children’s rights activist, and a member of the Committee
to Pursue the Establishment of Workers'
Organisations in Iran, who has already served three years of a six-year
sentence, while his 14-year old son is under treatment for leukaemia. Despite
his son’s continued illness, Ebrahimzadeh was sent back to jail on 26th
September following a short leave. The latest news is that on 20th
October 2013 his family were refused a visit and his sentence has been extended
by another 28 days allegedly for not having reported for return to prison while
on leave.
Reza
Shahabi, a member of the executive board of the Union of
Workers of Tehran and suburbsUnited Bus Company, has been jailed for his part
in the great bus workers’ strike in 2006 and in building the bus workers’
union. He has already served more than three years of a four-year sentence.
Shahabi suffers from multiple medical conditions, including a severe back
problem. Unfinished treatments have led to a deterioration in Shahabi’s
condition; problems in his neck, back and arms and legs are threatening to
paralyse him. In a protest letter to the prison authorities, he writes: “I have
problems in both my legs, which go numb and are getting weaker, so I can only
get up with massage and with the help of my cell mates”. He then asks: “Is this
anything but prisoners’ slow death through physical and mental exhaustion”? He
says, if anything happens to him, the responsibility lies with the judiciary,
the prisons’ organisation and the highest state authorities.
Shahrokh
Zamani, a member of Tehran’s Painters Union and the Committee to
Pursue the Establishment of Workers’ Organisations in Iran, was arrested in June 2011 and sentenced to
11 years in prison. Zamani has been subjected to severe tortures. He is now
being held in the notorious Rajaei Shahr prison. On 7 September 2013 Zamani was
transferred from Rajaei Shahr to Tabriz prison to stand trial for “insulting
the leader”, as a result of which another six months was added to his sentence.
Pedram Nasrollahi, a
member of the Co-ordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organisations in
Iran, is in prison for union activity.
Mohammad Jarahi, a member of the Committee to Pursue the
Establishment of Workers’ Organisations in Iran, was arrested in January 2012
and sentenced to 5 years in prison for union activity. Following a recent
operation on his thyroid gland, the doctors have advised recuperation outside
prison conditions. However, Jarahi has been refused medical leave.
Mohammad
Mohammadi,
a member of the executive board of the Free Union of Iranian Workers, has been
in jail since February 2012. 
Rasoul
Bodaghi, a member of the governing
board of Teachers’ Trade Association, is serving a six-year sentence for union
activity.
Abdolreza
Ghanbari, a teacher activist, is in
prison for taking part in the massive anti-government demonstration in December
2009. Ghanbari was sentenced to death; however, following widespread protests,
his sentence was reduced to ten years.
In addition, worker
activists Vafa Ghaderi, Khaled Hosseini and Ghader Hosseini in Sanandaj have been
sentenced in absentia to 5 months, 12 months and 18 months in prison,
respectively, and are in danger of imminent arrest.
* * *
- We express our solidarity with Iranian
workers and call for the immediate and unconditional release of all jailed
trade unionists and political prisoners in Iran;
- We condemn the Islamic regime of Iran
for its persecution of worker activists and political dissidents;
- We call for the abolition of the death
penalty, which is deliberate state murder. The death sentences against
Zanyar and Loghman Moradi and all those on death row must be dropped
immediately;
- We support the struggle of the workers
and people of Iran for freedom, the right to organise and strike, and for
welfare, equality, justice and a life of dignity;
- We call for the international political
isolation of the regime of Iran and its boycott by the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) and all world bodies.
- We call on all trade unions and human
rights organisations around the world and all those appalled by the
horrific human rights abuse in Iran to support these demands.
Free Them Now! Campaign to
Free Jailed Workers in Iran
Shahla Daneshfar (shahla_daneshfar@yahoo.com),
Bahram Soroush (bahram.soroush@gmail.com)
http://free-them-now.blogspot.co.uk/
Contacts around
the world: Canada: Masoud
Arjang (rozaarjang@yahoo.com), Yadi
Mahmodi (yadi.mahmodi@gmail.com),
Sweden: Göran Gustavsson (gorangu2004@yahoo.se), Japan: Jamal
Saberi: (jjsaberi@yahoo.co.jp), Australia:
Arsalan Nazeri (ifirsydoffice@optusnet.com.au),
Norway: Saber Rahimi (saber.rahimi66@gmail.com),
France: Pascal Descamp (cgt.addsea@gmail.com)
