Organisations redouble campaign for persecuted Iran unionists

8 December 2006

With Human Rights Day taking place on Sunday and no let up in the ill treatment of victimised trade unionist Mansour Osanloo, the ITF and ITUC have redoubled their efforts on his behalf and this week added to their official complaint to the ILO about the behaviour of the Government of Iran. The organisations have also made public a letter from Osanloo to an Iranian human rights group in which he details the interrogations he has been subjected to while in custody and the threats made that his family can be ‘annihilated’ anywhere in the world (text of the submission and the letter follow below).

The submission to the ILO states that: ‘During his time in prison from 22 December 2005 to 9 August 2006 he (Osanloo) was held in solitary confinement for three months and 23 days. He was under severe psychological pressure throughout his prison stay. He was blindfolded and handcuffed at times, and during interrogations he was harassed and threatened that he would stay in prison as long as the police wanted to keep him. The interrogations created an atmosphere which made him fear for his own life and that of members of his family.’

ITF General Secretary, David Cockroft, stated: “Trade unionists worldwide are backing Mansour Osanloo and all those who want to exercise basic trade union rights in Iran – and will do until he is released and the repression ceases. We are continuing to put their case and our protests to the Iranian government at every level. The fact that Mansour Osanloo has allowed us to release his letter – despite the obvious risks to him that this involved – will help us to make that case. Our campaign goes on, more forcefully than ever.”

Mansour Osanloo, the President of the trade union of the ITF affiliated Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, was arrested on November 19th, only months after being released on bail following a long campaign of intimidation by Iranian police and state security agents that has seen him and colleagues brutally arrested and meetings violently broken up. His release followed an international campaign led by the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation ) and ICFTU, now renamed ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) that involved protests to Iran, demonstrations outside embassies and a formal complaint to the ILO (see www.itfglobal.org/urban-transport/tehranbuses.cfm for background.

ENDS

Joint ITF/ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) submission and Mansour Osanloo’s letter to Iranian human rights group the Board of Citizenship Rights Review follow:

 

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