Friday 21 October 2011

To all labour and human rights organisations
November 5th is the International Day of Protest to Free Jailed Workers and Political Prisoners!
Join us on this day of action!


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In our last letter, we reported that the Islamic Republic had recently handed down heavy prison sentences to labor activists as a method of intensifying its pressure on the labor movement in Iran. In this context, we and other organizations and human rights groups declared November 5th the International Day of Protest against this intensification of pressure on workers by imposing heavy prison sentences on them, and in support of the demand to release jailed workers and all political prisoners.

We are fortunate to be able to inform you that under such a vast protest, two labor activists, namely Shahrokh Zamani and Mohamad Jarahi, sentenced to 11 and 5 years imprisonment, respectively, and two students tried in the same court along with them, Nima Pouryaqub and Sasan Vahebivash, sentenced to 6 years and 6 months, respectively, was released. It must be noted that these detainees were only released after payment of heavy bail. For example, the bail payment required for Sharokh Zamani was $200,000. By conditioning their release on payment of heavy bail, the Islamic Republic leaves their files open, allowing the regime to re-arrest them whenever they like.

In addition, on October 17, 2011, prominent labor activist Ayat Niafar was arrested in the city of Shahrraye.

These [– release conditioned on heavy bail and continued arrests of labor activists –] are all indicators of the daily, systematic pressure of the Islamic Republic on labor activists in Iran. With these measures [against individual activists], the Islamic Republic puts systematic pressure on the labor movement and people of Iran in general on a daily basis! November 5th is our protest day against these pressures, our day to demand the release of jailed workers and political prisoners.

Ebrahim Madadi and Reza Shahabi of the Syndicate Sherkate Vahed; Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, labor activist member of the Follow-up Committee to Build Free Labour Organisations; Rasol Bodaghi, jailed teacher and (member of Teachers’ Trade Association; and Ayat Niafar, labor activist and member of "The Follow-up Committee to Build Free Labour Organisations", are all currently in prison.

All jailed workers and political prisoners should be freed.

Free Them Now! (Campaign to Free Jailed Workers in Iran)
http://free-them-now.blogspot.com info.free.them.now@gmail.com


Canada Norway Germany
Masoud Arjang
001-6046495453
Saber Rahimi
rahimi37@yahoo.com
Shahnaz Morattab
shahnaz1@t-online.de

Sweden UK Australia
Göran Gustavsson
gorangu2004@yahoo.se
hasan_salehi2001@yahoo.com
mamad_amiri67@yahoo.se
Shiva Mahbobi
freepoliticalprisoners@gmail.com
Arsalan Nazeri
ilscaustralianb@optusnet.com.au

Japan France
Jamal Saberi
jjsaberi@yahoo.co.jp
Pascal Descamp
cgt.addsea@gmail.com


21 October 2011

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