From: Free Trade Union of Iranian Workers
To: International Trade Union Confederation
Subject: Protest against the persecution and arrest of workers on under the justification of security risks
Ms. Sharon Barrow, Honorable President of the International Trade Union Confederation
It is with respect that Jafar Azimzadeh, the secretary of the board of directors of the Free Trade Union of Iranian Workers, is currently serving a six-year prison sentence in notorious Evin Prison, and Parvin Mohammadi, vice president of the union’s board of directors, is awaiting arrest. Khalil Karimi, another member of the board of directors is in the Sanandaj prison. Nahid Khodjoo, another board member, was sentenced to six years in prison and 74 lashes and a ban on membership in social organizations.
Shapour Ehsani Rad, another member of the board, was sentenced to six years in prison and two years of exile to a remote area. Azam Khezri Javadi (Nasrin Javadi), a member of the Free Trade Union of Iranian workers, has been sentenced to four years in prison and 74 lashes and a ban on membership in social organizations. For several other members of our trade union, Mehdi Fakhri, Farhad Sheikhi, Hadi Suleimani, judicial file for attending International Workers Day of 2019 are still open.
Attacks by security forces and the judiciary on members of the Free Trade Union of Iranian Workers have been ongoing since 2006, the year of its founding, and many members of this labor organization have been arrested and tried. In the past year, the crackdown has become more widespread and has widened to the point where security forces and the judiciary have explicitly announced to the arrested members of this union that they will shut down their organization.
The scope of the persecution and suppression of workers in Iran is not limited to the Free Trade Union of Iranian Workers and extends to all workers’ organizations and workers in various labor centers and workers’ supporters.
On May 1, security forces stormed a workers’ rally in front of the Islamic Parliament, arresting more than 50 workers, retirees and students, and have opened judicial file against them. To date, many workers and labor supporters who have been arrested on International Workers’ Day have been issued heavy judicial rulings.These include the following sentences: 11 years and six months imprisonment and 74 lashes for Atefeh Rangriz, ten years and six months imprisonment and 148 lashes for Marzieh Amiri, five years imprisonment for Hassan Saeedi, two years imprisonment and 74 lashes and two years of exile for Rasul Taleb Moghaddam, one year imprisonment for Alireza Saghafi, one year imprisonment for Haleh Safarzadeh, and heavy prison sentences for many of those arrested. Neda Naji is another of those arrested, who, after six months, is still being held in detention without trial.
Last year, during the strike of Haft Tapeh sugarcane workers, a number of workers and members of the Gam Magazine in support of Haft Tapeh workers were arrested and were temporarily released after ten months’ detention. Mohammad Khannifar and Ismail Bakhshi, workers of Haft Tapeh sugarcane, have been sentenced to six years and 14 years in prison, and Amir Hossein Mohammadi Fard, Sanaz Alhayari, Amir Amirgholi, Asal Mohammadi and Sepideh Gholian each have been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Since last year, more than forty workers of Ahvaz National Steel Group, more than twenty workers of Haft Tapeh sugar cane, and several dozen workers of Hepco and Azarab in the city of Arak have been arrested and all are now prosecuted. It is possible for all to be sentenced to long prison terms.
The Islamic Republic of Iran’s security forces brutally attacked and injured scores of Ahwaz steel workers, Hepco and Azarab workers in Arak, and Haft Tapeh sugar cane workers. They arrested these workers and released them on heavy bail.
Madam Chairman
The repression against workers is due to the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran regards any protests for the rights of workers and teachers and all wage-earners as a security risk. This regime is suppressing, arresting, and imprisoning workers, teachers, retirees, and even supporters of workers on false security charges.
On the one hand, this kind of violent repression is carried out by the Islamic Republic against the workers, and on the other, the Islamic Republic sends false representatives to international organizations every year as a representative of the workers and presents a false picture of the situation of the workers in Iran. The Islamic Republic does not want the voice of the workers to reach you and other international labor and human rights organizations.
We urge you to urge the authorities in Iran to end the prosecution of the workers for their legitimate demands under the name of security risk, to release the imprisoned workers, to abolish all the sentences against the workers and to stop the prosecution of the workers.
We also request that you file the repression and injustice against workers and other reports in our previous correspondence as our complaint against Islamic Republic of Iran for its human rights violations at the International Labor Organization.
Free Trade Union of Iranian Workers
CC: International trade unions and international human rights organizations
November 08, 2019