Iran: May Day Activists Still Detained.

by pat c Tue May 20, 2008 19:14

Latest news on the detained workers. The source is Free Union of Iranian Workers (Ettehadiye Azad e Kargaran e Iran) via LabourStart.

Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi continue to be detained by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry following their arrest on 1st May for taking part in this year’s May Day rally in the port town of Asaluye, in the south of Iran. Moradi and Azadi are veteran labour activists and founding members of the Free Union of Iranian Workers (Ettehadiye Azad e Kargaran e Iran).

Javanmir Moradi’s telephone call to Fouzieh Khalesi

On 12 May, Javanmir Moradi contacted his wife Fouzieh Khalesi from his mobile. Moradi asked her to talk in Farsi. He later asked her not to stay in the area and to leave. In response to Fouzieh’s question as to whether he had been given his glasses, Moradi said it did not matter. He gave the same reply to the question about his medicines. Javanmir also asked about the identity of those who were with her.

Fouzieh asked the Intelligence Ministry officers to receive Moradi’s medicines and to give them to him. However, they said they had a doctor themselves. It should be noted that Javanmir Moradi suffers from a nervous disorder, which makes him severely dependent on his glasses. Without his glasses and medicines, his health will be seriously damaged. They were prescribed by a specialist doctor for Moradi a long time ago.

Our union believes that Javanmir Moradi’s telephone conversation today with his wife was directed by the Intelligence Ministry officials of Bushehr, and holds the highest authorities of the country’s Judiciary and Bushehr’s Intelligence Ministry officials responsible for any physical or psychological damage to Javanmir Moradi. Our union once again calls on all labour and human rights organisations to protest urgently against the inhuman conditions created for Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi and their families and to demand their immediate and unconditional release.

by pat c Tue May 20, 2008 19:23

The following is an extract from a letter sent by the TUC to the Iranian Ambassador to Britain. Full text at link.

I urge you strongly to convey to your Government yet again the deep concern of the Trades Union Congress about the arrests of trade unionists and the harassment of peaceful May Day demonstrations.

On 23 April, Shays Amani one of the founders of the National Union of Dismissed and Unemployed Workers was arrested. Shays Amani was arrested last year on May Day and is still awaiting the result of his appeal against his unfair sentence to two and a half years imprisonment.

On May Day itself several arrests and other acts of harassment took place across Iran. Three workers activists, Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi, members of the Free Union of Iranian Workers (FUIW), and another worker by the name of Saeed Hazrati were arrested in Asalouyeh in the south of Iran.

Other arrests took place in Ashnavieh city and Sanandaj. In Tehran where May Day events took place on 25 April, security forces and the police blocked the Chitgar Park and scared away participants. The park was shut down by 1000 security forces, but the workers managed to move to the Jahan-Nama Park and continue the celebrations there.