Mansoor Osanloo must be freed immediately!
Mansoor Osanloo, a labour activist and the secretary general of the bus drivers’ union has been in prison for several years, and has subjected to torture and brutality; as a result, he suffers from number of illnesses.
Based on his illnesses the prison doctors considered his physical condition unfit to be in prison, but the Information Ministry rejected his release. Disregarding his health condition and intentional vindictiveness towards Osanloo, who is suffering from heart condition and malnutrition, has put him under heaps of stress. He is suffering from skin disease but being denied time in the sunlight. Osanloo has had three eye surgeries thus far, suffering from back condition, and has intestine illness; this is deliberate torture! Mansoor Osanloo has spent nearly 11 months in prison without being allowed any visitors.
Osanloo was arrested in December 2005 and spent 8 months in prison. In November 2006 he was detained for one month and was release on bail. The third time he was arrested shortly after returning from the annual conference of the International Transport Workers’ Federation(ITF) in June 2007, when he was dragged out of a bus and beaten in public.
In March 2007 he was convicted and sentenced to a five years prison in Evin. On June 30 2007 by the order of the notorious Information Ministry, he was transferred to section five of the Rajaeeshahr prison where the drug addicts and criminal are kept. In section 5 Seyed Mohammad Husseini and Mohammad Barkhi, two high security prisoners, were among the detainees and one of them knifed Osanloo last year, and the other one, planned another knife attack, but other prisoners stopped him. These kinds of unsuccessful callous attacks took place numerous times, but Osanloo was saved by his fellow prisoners.
On March 2010 Osanloo complained about the guards’ attack on the detainees who were arrested in recent demonstrations; he was punished by being transferred to a solitary confinement for a week.
After being employed for 26 years, Osanloo was put on trial, convicted, and fired from his job in absentia; as a result, his family is under an immense economic pressure.
This cruel and unjust treatment must be stopped now. We call on all organisations to pressure the Islamic Regime and to demand the unconditional release of all political prisoners. Mansoor Osanloo must be release, and receive proper medical treatment immediately.
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI)
11 April 2010
