4 Cases of Recent Repressions by Islamic Regime
With the conclusion of nuclear agreement and with the aim of attracting domestic and foreign capital, Islamic Republic has intensified austerity measures and repressive response against worker protests. While even the agreed-upon wages are not being paid for months, workers are increasingly exposed to layoffs due to privetization and closure of factories, and with the lack of social safety network and unemployment insurance, poverty and calamity is rampant; and worker protests are answered by repression and imprisonment. This is happening while workers in Iran are deprived of their right to assemble, organize, and express their protest, and there is daily battle between workers and Islamic state. The Campaign to Free Jailed Workers expects of all worker organizations and humanist institutions all over the world to condemn the repression by the Islamic regime and to support jailed workers and workers under trial in any way they can.
4 cases of repression by the regime are as follows:
– As we have informed you before, 9 workers of Iron mine of Bafqh of Yazd, representing 5000 workers who had gone on strike in the summer of the previous year, were summoned to court on 17th of January and were tried. The judicial authorities of Islamic Republic were not able to reach a decision due to fear of protests by workers. The next trial is due on 16th of February. The trial of these 9 workers of Bafqh mine, because of their struggle for their righteous demands, is indeed the trial of all 5000 workers of this mine. These trials must be cancelled and any kind of fabrication of charges against them must be stopped.
– On 26th of January, the special forces of Islamic Republic attacked the gathering of fired workers of copper mine of Khatoon Aabad and detained 28 protesting workers. Following these detentions, families of detainees also joined the protest gathering in front of the factory. These protests are ongoing. The workers are demanding the release of coworkers from prison and their return to work
.
-Mohammad Jarahi is a worker activist and a member Member of the Committee to Set up Free Labour Organisations in Iran which has been in Tabriz prison since 14th of January 2012. He has informed the public from the prison that three prison officers by the names of Ali Ahangar, the attorney of addiction ward, Husein Baqqal, person in charge of security, and Asqhar Naqhavy, person in charge of prison shop, have beaten him in front of prison authorities.
Mohammad Jarahi was tried in court in Tabriz, along with Shahrokh Zamani, and sentenced to 6 years in prison. Shahrokh Zamani was sentenced to 11 years in prison in this court, which after 4 years, on 13th of September 2015, lost his life in Gohardasht Prison. His murderers are criminal elements of Islamic Republic, and the Campaign to Free Jailed Wrkers demanded the follow-up as to how he was murdered and condemnation of this crime, with a letter. Mohammad Jarahi has asked of all worker activists and organizations to protest against this criminal conduct against him and other political prisoners, and echo his voice to all international institutions, so that he too does not succumb to the same fate as Shahrokh Zamani.
Jafar Azimazdeh, , a well-known labor leader and the head of the Free Union of Workers of Iran, and one of the coordinators of the 40 thousand-signatures-petition the increase in wages, has been in jail since 9th of October 2015. He is in 8th ward of Evin prison. According to news from the Free Union of Iranian Workers on 16th of January, he, along with a number of teachers, are kept in the worst of conditions, with the least of facilities, and under extreme pressure in this ward. Occasional raids on prisoners with different excuses and sending thugs with the support of prison administration which cause unforeseeable events constitute clear examples of physical and mental harassment and torture against political prisoners. The continuation of these conditions has made families of prisoners extremely worried and anxious. The Free Union of Iranian Workers has demanded, as an urgent step, that political prisoners be separated from ordinary prisoners, and the wellbeing, security, and proper physical and psychological conditions of prisoners be guaranteed; and has declared that the judicial system and prison organization are responsible for wellbeing and life of prisoners.
In addition to these four cases, a number of teachers and worker activists, including Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, Rasool Bodaghi, Esmail Abdi, Mahmood Beheshti, Aliakbar Baqhani, and a large number of other political activists are in prison.
We expect outmost support from all worker organizations and humanist institutions.
Campaign to free jailed workers in Iran (Free Them Now(
29th January 2016
Shahla. Daneshfar2@gmail.com
translated by: Habib Biktash
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