Release of Two Labor Activists from Prison

Reports from Iran indicate the release of Behnam Ebrahimzadeh and Valeh Zamani, two labor activists, from prison. According to the Ettehad website, affiliated with the Free Workers Union of Iran, Mr. Ebrahimzadeh was released from Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj on the night of April 30. This labor activist and children's rights advocate was arrested during a May Day gathering in Laleh Park, Tehran, in June 2010 and was released on bail after a month. He was arrested again in 2010 and sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran on charges including 'gathering against national security and propaganda against the regime.' This sentence was reduced to 5 years on appeal. The Ettehad website also reported that Valeh Zamani, a member of the Painters Union of Alborz Province, who was arrested after reading a resolution at the Free Workers Union of Iran's May Day event, was released on the evening of May 1. This event took place in front of the Iranian Parliament, and Mr. Zamani's arrest occurred after the reading of a statement by independent labor organizations. In recent years, labor organizations and activists have faced security and judicial pressures. In this regard, Amnesty International stated on Saturday, April 29, that several labor activists, including Mahmoud Beheshti Langaroudi, Mohammad Reza Niknezhad, and Mehdi Bahlooli, three former or current members of the Iranian Teachers' Trade Association (Tehran), Mahmoud Salehi, a member of the Committee to Pursue the Establishment of Labor Organizations, Davood Razavi, Ebrahim Madadi, and Reza Shahabi, three board members of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company Workers' Union, and Jaafar Azimzadeh and Shapour Ehsani Rad, the president and a board member of the Free Workers Union of Iran, are at risk of imprisonment. According to this organization, 'All these individuals have been sentenced to long prison terms of 5 to 11 years after extremely unfair trials in revolutionary courts on baseless charges such as gathering and colluding against national security, propaganda against the regime, disturbing public order, and forming groups aimed at undermining the country's security.' Amnesty International added that Reza Shahabi, who had been on medical leave after serving 4 years in prison since October 2014, has recently been called back to prison. According to the report, Osman Ismaili, a labor activist who was sentenced to one year in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Saqqez, Kurdistan, is awaiting the outcome of an appeal hearing that was held a few months ago. Amnesty International noted that prison sentences for these activists were issued due to their peaceful labor activities, such as 'holding peaceful gatherings including on May Day, peaceful protests against low wages, posting photos of labor protests online, receiving invitations to participate in international labor union meetings, signing statements in support of labor unions, and collecting signatures to request an increase in the minimum wage.' Previously, ILNA news agency along with local and labor websites had repeatedly reported on the summons, arrests, and issuance of flogging and prison sentences for labor activists and workers protesting their conditions, including for 17 dismissed workers from the Agh Dareh gold mine in West Azerbaijan Province. Meanwhile, according to the latest news, the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Dezful has summoned Ali Nejati, a board member of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers' Union, Ashraf Rahimkhani and Zeynab Keshvari, activists in the women's sector, and Ezzat Jafari, Shapour Rashnou, Ali Mohammad Jahangiri, and Shakri on charges of propaganda against the regime for April 13. Security and judicial actions against workers and labor activists in Iran continue at a time when the Islamic Republic of Iran has expressed its agreement with International Labor Organization conventions regarding the freedom of workers' organization.