Iran: May Day Activists Still Detained.

international | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Monday May 12, 2008 14:18 by pat c

Concern grows over the continued detention of three union activists arrested in connection with this year’s May Day events in Iran. Eleven other detained workers have now been released, some on very considerable bail.

Sheis Amani, Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi, all founders and leading members of the newly formed Free Union of Workers in Iran are still detained. Sheis Amani, a veteran shop-steward from Sanandaj, was arrested ahead of May Day. Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi, member and substitute member, respectively, of the FUWI’s governing board, were arrested on 1st May as they came to take part in the May Day rally called by the union in Asaluye in the south of Iran.

Last year Amani spent 42 days in prison for taking part in May Day celebrations - was arrested on 23 April. His appeal hearing (along with that of his colleague Sedigh Karimi) over a two and half year prison sentence is pending.

Moradi and Azadi have been transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence offices in Bushehr. Sheis Amani is in detention in Sanandaj. The three are being held without access to their lawyers and families, and no charges are believed to have been formally filed against them.

By keeping these activists in detention, the authorities are not only sending a warning to workers who defied the May Day ban, but also targeting the newly formed union, which actively mobilised for May Day. All labour activity and union organising in Iran is banned. The Free Union was formed on 19 April this year, when a general assembly of the former National Union of Dismissed and Unemployed Workers voted unanimously to reconstitute itself as the Free Union of Workers in Iran.

You Can Help!

Please send letters of protest to the Islamic Republic government, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all three activists. Send letters to:

Supreme Leader:
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei
Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street
Shahid Keshvar Doust Street
Tehran, Iran
Email: info@leader.ir

The President:
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency
Palestine Avenue,
Azerbaijan Intersection
Tehran, Iran
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir

The Head of the Judiciary:
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St.,Vali Asr Ave.,
South of Serah-e Jomhouri,
Tehran, Iran
Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.ir