Iran: Two prominent trade union leaders arrested ahead of May Day

The Free Union of Workers in Iran (Ettehadiye Azad e Kargaran e Iran) has reported that two of its Executive Committee members have been arrested.

Jafar Azim Zadeh and Jamil Mohammadi were arrested during a raid on their homes in the capital Tehran at 1am this morning.

The police also raided the home of another leader of the Union, Parvin Mohammadi, breaking the door and forcibly entering the house. However, Ms Mohammadi was away from her home at the time, and was not arrested.

Jafar Azim Zadeh and Jamil Mohammadi are among the coordinators for a national pay rise campaign, which has so far attracted 40,000 signatures.

The arrests and intimidations are the authorities’ usual ploy each year to pre-empt protests and rallies by workers on May Day. This year’s arrests come ahead of a call by the Union for a rally outside the Labour Ministry in Tehran on May Day. The police have refused to authorise the event.

On Tuesday the police summoned five other Executive Committee members of the Free Union of Workers to the Ministry of Intelligence in the city of Sanandaj, questioning them and warning them against participation in May Day rallies. Previously, seven other labour activists, all members of the Co-ordinating Committee to Help Form Free Labour Organisations, were summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence in Sanandaj for questioning.

Earlier this month, anti-riot guards carried out a ferocious attack on political prisoners in Ward 350 of Evin Prison in Tehran, in the course of which many prisoners were injured, some seriously, and forcibly moved to a solitary ward of the Prison.

We urge labour organisations and human rights groups around the world to protest against the detention of trade union leaders Jafar Azim Zadeh and Jamil Mohammadi and call for their immediate and unconditional release.

Free Them Now! Campaign to Free Jailed Workers in Iran

Families of political prisoners stage a protest outside Rouhani’s office

ASSAULT ON POLITICAL PRISONERS IN IRAN - UPDATE

Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Today, the families of the political prisoners, who were the subject of a vicious attack by Evin Prison’s Special Guards last Thursday, staged a protest outside the office of the Islamic Republic President, Hassan Rouhani. Since last Thursday’s attack, anxious families of the political prisoners have gathered daily outside Evin Prison, demanding answers and immediate access to their loved ones. In last Thursday’s raid on Ward 350 of the Prison, the prisoners were badly beaten up; many were injured, some seriously.

During today’s protest outside Rouhani’s office, the families were able to send several of their representatives inside the building for talks. However, after their return and as the crowds were starting to leave, the protesters came under attack by the security forces. Several people have been arrested.

Yesterday, some family members were able to briefly visit their imprisoned relatives. This came after a large gathering of around 200 outside the visit hall of the prison. Those who were able to meet with the prisoners, have spoken of injuries and blue marks on the prisoners’ bodies. The mother of one of the prisoners, Akbar Amini, fainted, and had to be taken to hospital, after seeing her son’s injuries to the neck and head. Only one further brief visit was allowed on Monday afternoon.

The latest update on the condition and whereabouts of the prisoners, based on the information available so far, is as follows:

16 prisoners continue to be held in solitary confinement. They are believed to be those with the most severe injuries. Those, with relatively lighter injuries, have been returned to Ward 350. The prisoners in Ward 240 are on hunger strike, and they have been joined by 12 prisoners in Ward 350.

The prisoners in the solitary ward are as follows:

Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, Mohammad Amin Haadavi, Mohammad Sedigh Kabudvand, Mohammad Davari, Behzad Arab Gol, Gholamreza Khosravi, Abolghasem Fuladvand, Mehran Ahan Khah, Reza Akbari Monfared, Majid Asadi, Saeed Matin Poor, Soheil Babadi, Saeed Haeri, Samku Khalghati, Reza Hamyari and Mohammad Shojaee.

Ebrahimzadeh and Kabudvand are said to be severely injured.

There are also serious concerns for the situation of Shahrokh Zamani, a political prisoner in Gohardasht Prison, who continues to be on hunger strike.

The Iranian government and the prison authorities are accountable for the grievous harm inflicted on the political prisoners in Ward 350. All those responsible for ordering this attack and those who carried it out should be brought to justice.

The injured political prisoners must receive immediate and appropriate medical attention and treatment outside the prison facilities.

All the remaining political prisoners who were moved to the solitary ward must be returned to Ward 350 immediately.

The families of the political prisoners should have free access to their loved ones.

The political prisoners in Ward 350 should be compensated for the financial and personal loss they have incurred as a result of the destruction of their belongings and personal property during the raid.

All political prisoners and jailed workers and trade unionists, who are being held in Iranian jails on fabricated and arbitrary charges, merely for their political opinion or trade union activity, must be released immediately and unconditionally.

Free Them Now! Campaign to Free Jailed Workers in Iran

22 April 2014

Vicious assault on political prisoners in Iran

Three prisoners are in a critical condition

On Thursday 17th April around one hundred special guards of Evin Prison in Tehran carried out a vicious raid on Ward 350 of the Prison, beating up the prisoners who protested and smashing their personal belongings. During this raid, which lasted around five hours, a number of political prisoners were injured and 32 were taken to Solitary Ward 240 of the Prison.

Three prisoners by the names of Saeed Haeri, Samkou Khalghati and Soheil Babaee are said to be in a critical state.

Other injured prisoners include Omid Behroozi (injury to the arm), Esmaeel Barzergari (broken ribs), Akbar Amini (head fracture) and another prisoner who suffered a heart attack and was taken to a hospital Coronary Care Unit.

The prisoners who have been transferred to Solitary Ward 240 include Mohammad Sedigh Kabudvand, Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, Yashar Darolshafa, Saeed Matinpour, Saeed Haeri, Davar Hosseini Vejdan and Ali Askari.

We condemn in the strongest possible term this vicious attack on the political prisoners in Evin Prison and demand their immediate return to Ward 350 and an end to the maltreatment and abuse of political prisoners.

The Iranian regime, and the prison authorities specifically, are accountable for any harm inflicted on the political prisoners in their jails.

We demand the immediate release of all political prisoners, jailed workers and trade unionists in Iran. Hundreds of political prisoners are being held in Iranian jails on fabricated and arbitrary charges, merely for their political opinion or trade union activity.

Free Them Now! Campaign to Free Jailed Workers in Iran

18 April 2014

Free jailed workers in Iran!

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 26^th September following a short leave. The latest news is that on 20^th 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.

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• 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)