Five-Year Prison Sentences of Three Haft Tappeh Syndicate Activists Pardoned
The convictions of three protesting Haft Tappeh workers and four civil and student activists have been subject to “pardon.” Ismail Bakhshi, Mohammad Khonaifer, Ali Nejati, Atefeh Rangriz, Marzieh Amiri, and Soheil Aghazadeh have been included in the list of “security-related defendants” receiving pardon.
Farzaneh Zilaabi, lawyer for the workers of Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Agro-Industry Company, confirming the cancellation of her clients’ five-year sentences, told media outlets that this pardon has not yet been formally notified in writing.
The news website of Iran’s Judiciary, on Saturday evening, 3rd of Khordad, reported the agreement of the Supreme Leader to “pardon” and reduce sentences for 3,712 convicts, including a number of “security-related defendants,” but did not mention the names of the individuals in question.
The campaign “Defense of Haft Tappeh Detainees” wrote that Ismail Bakhshi, Ali Nejati, Mohammad Khonaifer, Marzieh Amiri, Atefeh Rangriz, Neda Naji, Leila Hosseinzadeh, and Soheil Aghazadeh are among these individuals. Bakhshi and Khonaifer are fired workers from Haft Tappeh, and Nejati is a retiree from the company. These three syndicate activists have been summoned and detained multiple times in recent years.
Haft Tappeh Company was sold to the private sector in 2015, and the cause of workers’ protests and strikes was this privatization and unpaid wages. Ismail Bakhshi, who was a spokesperson and representative of the protesters in Haft Tappeh labor protests, was sentenced to 14 years in prison and 74 lashes in September 2019. He was temporarily released from prison in November of that year on a bail of 750 million tomans pending completion of his case.
Atefeh Rangriz and Marzieh Amiri were arrested during International Workers’ Day demonstrations in 2019 along with several student activists. According to a judicial ruling, Neda Naji, another civil activist who was arrested on the same day and is currently on leave, will not return to prison.
Sepideh Ghilian, a social activist who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in support of Haft Tappeh protests, is not on the pardon list. She, who is currently outside prison on bail of 1.5 billion tomans, wrote in a tweet: “Atefeh Rangriz received pardon while she endured various forms of psychological and mental torture during her detention, and bail was issued for her three times, each time canceled. Nevertheless, I congratulate this strong girl on her freedom.”
The campaign “Defense of Haft Tappeh Detainees and Progressive Prisoners” said in a statement: “We demand the annulment of inhuman sentences for all defendants in this case, including the editorial board of Gam magazine, supporters of Haft Tappeh such as Sepideh Ghilian, those detained in Haft Tappeh court and International Workers’ Day cases, and other defendants in labor, student, and political protest cases, and we will not remain silent until this goal is achieved.”
Amir Amirgoli, Sanaz Allahyari, and Amirhossein Mohammadifar, three members of the online magazine Gam, were arrested in connection with the publication of news and reports related to Haft Tappeh labor protests.
Haft Tappeh syndicate activists have received pardon while the trial of the company’s CEO and board members on charges of financial corruption, bribery, and currency embezzlement is being conducted behind closed doors. One of the charges against Omid Asadbeigi, the 33-year-old CEO of Haft Tappeh, is that he received 1.5 billion dollars in government currency to address the company’s situation but sold the currency on the free market. The case has also been opened against Gholamreza Shariati, governor of Khuzestan, and his wife on charges of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.
Source: DW
