Tehran’s bus drivers’ union leader sentenced to 6 years in prison
Reza Shahabi was arrested by the Iranian regime in June 2010 for his activities for the ‘Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company’, Sherkat-e Vahed. Despite ill health, Reza Shahabi is detained in horrific conditions in the notorious Evin prison.
According to latest reports, an “Islamic Revolutionary Court” sentenced Reza Shahabi to six years imprisonment and five years ‘prohibition of activities’. The union leader was accused of “propaganda activities against the system” and “conspiracy with the intention of acting against national security”. He was also instructed to ‘return money’ collected from workers and for ito be distributed among families of imprisoned workers.
This punishment against Reza Shahabi, a board member and treasurer of the bus drivers’ union, is another attempt by the Tehran regime to scare off workers from their need to defend themselves against wage cuts, unpaid wages and bad working conditions and to organise themselves to fight for their rights.
Despite the attacks against him, Reza Shahabi showed courageous resistance, undertaking several hunger strikes in protest against his incarceration and the conditions imposed on him.
The CWI calls for:
- The immediate release of Reza Shahabi and all other imprisoned trade unionists in Iran
- Release all political prisoners, end state torture and the death penalty
- Stop government attacks on the living standards of working people! For the right of workers to organise and strike, to defend their living and working conditions
- For the right to form political parties and independent workers’ organisations
Send protest messages to:
- Supreme Leader, Sayyid Ali Khamenei [email protected]
- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, [email protected]
- Please send copies to [email protected]
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