17 Dismissed Workers from Agh Dareh Mine in West Azerbaijan Whipped

ILNA reported on Wednesday the execution of judicial sentences against 17 dismissed workers from the Agh Dareh gold mine in West Azerbaijan, including fines and receiving lashes in the last days of Ordibehesht. ILNA quoted Vahid Yari, the defense lawyer for these workers, stating that the punishment of lashes for the accused ranged from 30 to 100 lashes. The charges against these workers included 'preventing and hindering people from conducting business by creating commotion and uproar,' 'insulting the company's guard,' 'destroying the guard's clothing and illegally detaining him,' and 'intentionally damaging the company's sign' in December 2014. In recent years, several workers and labor activists in various parts of Iran have been sentenced to receive lashes, with such sentences being executed in some cases. For instance, last April, five workers from the Chadormalu mine in Yazd province were sentenced to one year in prison and lashes. According to ILNA, these workers, along with 25 others from the mine, were tried following labor protests based on the employer's complaint of 'disrupting order and preventing the realization of others' rights.' These five workers were identified by the employer as leaders of last year's strikes at the Chadormalu mine, and he demanded serious action against them to serve as a lesson for other protesting workers. However, these sentences were not executed, as Bahram Hosseini Nejad, the dismissed secretary of the Chadormalu Workers' Association, told ILNA that the sentence against these five workers could be converted to five years of suspended imprisonment and a fine of three million rials for each of them due to their lack of a criminal record. ILNA quoted the court's ruling stating that if these workers do not commit intentional crimes from the date of the ruling until the end of the suspension period, the suspended conviction will become ineffective; otherwise, in addition to the punishment for the recent crime, the suspended punishment will also be enforced. Additionally, ILNA reported that last April, two legal representatives of bakery workers in Sanandaj were sentenced to five months of imprisonment and 30 lashes, which was converted to five years of suspended imprisonment by the judge's favorable opinion. In September 2014, the public court of Imam Khomeini Port sentenced four workers from the Razavi Petrochemical Company to six months in prison and 50 lashes following a complaint from the company's CEO for disrupting order. Nevertheless, according to ILNA, the court suspended their imprisonment and lashes for two years due to their lack of a criminal record and their married status. However, lash sentences against labor activists in Kurdistan were executed in 2008 and 2009. According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Sousan Razani and Shiva Khairabadi, two labor activists who were arrested after participating in International Workers' Day celebrations in Sanandaj, were whipped in Sanandaj Central Prison, with Ms. Razani receiving 70 lashes and Ms. Khairabadi 15 lashes. The previous year, the Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj issued prison and lash sentences for 13 workers and labor activists who were arrested during the International Workers' Day celebrations on May 1, and some of these sentences were executed. Alongside these punishments, labor organizations in Iran have repeatedly reported summons, arrests, and prison sentences for labor activists on security charges, as well as the dismissal of workers protesting their working conditions or their arrests. These crackdowns on labor activists and workers in Iran continue amid criticism from human rights organizations and labor unions worldwide, which have raised these policies in international meetings.