Ahvaz Revolutionary Court Sentences 17 Protesting Steel Workers to Flogging

The Revolutionary Court of Ahvaz has sentenced 17 protesting workers from the National Industrial Steel Group of Iran to flogging and fines on charges of 'disturbing public order through creating uproar and turmoil.' According to ILNA news agency on Wednesday, October 5, each of these workers has been sentenced to '2.5 million tomans in fines payable to the government treasury instead of three months of imprisonment, and to endure 74 lashes.' The report states that these 17 workers protested in a gathering in 2022 regarding 'the management status of the company and their legal situation, including the failure to implement classification.' The ruling from the Revolutionary Court of Ahvaz states: 'Considering the special circumstances of the worker defendants, due to the lack of a criminal record, and upon meeting the conditions set forth in Article 40 of the Islamic Penal Code, the designated flogging punishment for each of the workers has been suspended for three years, so that if they do not commit any crimes, the suspended punishment will not be executed against them.' ILNA reported that this ruling can be contested within 20 days from the date of actual notification, and after that, it can be appealed in the appellate courts of Khuzestan province within another 20 days. The ruling was issued following 'the report from the law enforcement authority and the complaint from the plaintiff in the criminal case (Shafaq Rahiyaan Oxin Industrial and Commercial Company) and the report from the security of the National Industrial Steel Group of Iran.' The ruling comes at a time when, according to ILNA, the employer's complaint against the workers had previously ended in a dismissal following an appellate court ruling last year, but the Shafaq Rahiyaan Oxin Industrial and Commercial Company filed another complaint against these protesting workers. The workers sentenced to flogging and fines include Mehdi Valipour, Khaled Sharifi, Ra'id Obaidavi, Tareq Khalafi, Rasoul Harag, Nader Hardani, Ali Naderi, Mehdi Negaravi, Masoud Heydari, Abdolhossein Hamidipour, Mostafa Abiyat, Abdolkarim Sayahi, Kazem Heydari, Ali Elahi Far, Hadi Vaeli Zadeh, Hassan Javid Hamoudi, and Gharib Hovizari. This is not the first time protesting workers in Iran have been sentenced to flogging. For instance, Davood Rafiei, a worker who protested his dismissal from Pars Khodro Company, was sentenced to endure 74 lashes for 'insulting' Ali Rabiei, the then Minister of Labor of the Islamic Republic, a ruling that was executed in December 2020. Previously, Rouhollah Barzin, a bakery worker in Choram city in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, was sentenced to 55 lashes in June 2020 for not apologizing after writing harsh words on social media about the performance of the city's Friday prayer leader. Additionally, in late May 2016, 17 dismissed workers from the Aghdareh Gold Mine in West Azerbaijan province received sentences of 30 to 100 lashes, and several of them were also imprisoned. This has led to widespread protests. In contrast, Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje'i, the spokesperson for the judiciary, stated several weeks later, on June 13, 2016, without criticizing the court's ruling on flogging the Aghdareh mine workers, that 'the judge's discretion may not always align with our preferences, and we do not defend such preferences.' Flogging sentences against labor activists in Kurdistan province were also carried out in 2008 and 2009. Sousan Razani and Shiva Khairabadi, two labor activists who were arrested after participating in International Workers' Day celebrations in Sanandaj, endured lashes in the central prison of this city, with Razani receiving 70 lashes and Khairabadi 15 lashes. Prior to that, the Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj issued prison and flogging sentences for 13 workers and labor activists who were detained during the International Workers' Day celebrations on May 1, resulting in several of the detainees facing execution of their sentences.