News online
Campaign to save life of jailed Iranian trade unionist
2 January 2008
The international trade union and human rights movements are calling for urgent action to save the life of Mahmoud Salehi, a trade unionist who is in detention in Iran. He is currently facing a medical emergency.
Mahmoud Salehi, a representative of the bakery workers of Saqez and a spokesperson for the Organisational Committee to Establish Trade Unions has been held since April 2007 in Sandandaj’s central prison. Salehi suffers from chronic kidney disease and requires continuous essential care and dialysis treatment by specialist physicians. It has also been reported that he has grave intestinal edema or swelling that may be connected to his renal disease as well as a heart disorder. According to reports, Salehi was admitted unconscious to Tohid Hospital in Sanandaj on 11 December after repeatedly collapsing in prison. He received a brain scan, which revealed that blood vessels in his brain had been damaged. Salehi was shortly afterwards returned to prison.
In a letter dated 19 December to the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei, ITF General Secretary David Cockroft and International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Guy Ryder called for Salehi to be given adequate medical care “most urgently”. They declared that “Salehi should not and cannot stay in prison for the remaining time of his sentence until next March and he must be released immediately on humanitarian grounds.”
Human rights organisation Amnesty UK is backing the campaign by hosting an online web action page for Salehi: http://amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?ActionID=386
A number of unions have written to the Iranian authorities demanding Salehi’s release. They include the State Railway Workers' Union of Thailand; Teamsters Canada; Trade Union Congress, UK; Seafarers' Union of Croatia; Indonesian Seafarers' Union and the General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions.
Education International has reported that nine teachers were sentenced to 91 days’ imprisonment on 14 December by a criminal court in the of Hamadan: http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/show.php?id=693&theme=rights&country=iran
Back to current news online stories
|
