Week of Action in support of jailed students and political prisoners in Iran (2–9 Feb 2008)

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Monday January 28, 2008 17:00 by pat c

Here is an appeal from International Labour Solidarity Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran on behalf of imprisoned students, workers and political prisoners. Full text at link.

The news on the condition of over 50 jailed students in Iran is very worrying. Last week Ebrahim Lotfollaahi died under torture in the city of Sanandaj. Nearly two months since their arrest and detention, many students continue to be held incommunicado. Reports from prisons speak of long and severe interrogation sessions by the feared Information Ministry officials, with many students being tort ured and kept in solitary confinement.

As well as the jailed students, many labour and women’s rights activists continue to be detained and persecuted. There are grave concerns about union leader Mahmoud Salehi, who is still in prison despite a life-threatening kidney condition. Mansoor Ossanlou, the leader of Tehran’s bus workers’ union, is still in prison following his violent abduction last July by the security forces. Ali Reza Hashemi, a teachers’ leader, has just been handed a three-year prison sentence for trade union activities.

To mobilise support for the jailed students in Iran, their families have called for a Week of Action from 2nd to 9th of February. This is an important opportunity to support the jailed students and also to renew the call for the unconditional and immediate release of Mahmoud Salehi, Mansoor Ossanlou and all other imprisoned activists and political prisoners in Iran.

Your union and organisation is requested to support and join this Week of Action in any way you can – from publishing the news of the campaign and sending protest letters to joining the demonstrations and other actions planned for this week across Europe and North America.

Please see our forthcoming Week of Action bulletins for further details of the events at: http://www.kargaran.org/

International Labour Solidarity Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran

Head office:

Co-ordinator: Shahla Daneshfar shahla_daneshfar@yahoo.com

Public Relations: Bahram Soroush Bahram.Soroush@gmail.com

24 January 2008