Judicial authorities double bail for Haft Tappeh workers; 6 workers remain in custody

Reports indicate that six workers from Haft Tappeh continue to remain in detention due to increased bail amounts.

The Haft Tappeh Workers’ Syndicate reported on Monday, October 6, that the prosecutor and head of Shush judiciary did not accept the bail amounts for detained workers and have actually doubled the previous bail amounts for these workers.

According to the report, bail amounts have been set as follows: Mohammad Khanifer, a detained worker, 100 million tomans; Youssef Bahmani, 8 million tomans; Ebrahim Abbasi Manjoozi and Moslem Cheshmkhavar, 70 million tomans; Mahmoud Khodayee, 50 million tomans; and Iman Akhzari, 60 million tomans.

The Haft Tappeh Workers’ Syndicate also announced that eight cases have been opened for Haft Tappeh sugar cane workers in Shush judiciary over the past month.

According to the report, the complainant against the company workers is actually Omid Asadbeigi, the former employer of Haft Tappeh company.

Labor sources have also reported the referral of the detained Haft Tappeh workers’ cases to Shush court. Based on these reports, six detained Haft Tappeh workers, along with their attorney Farzaneh Zileabi, appeared before the second branch of the prosecutor’s office in Shush County Judiciary and were formally charged.

Protests by Haft Tappeh workers began extensively in 2018, but these protests were met with security and judicial crackdowns by the government. Ismail Bakhshi, a Haft Tappeh workers’ representative, was among the workers who declared after being detained that he had been tortured and was arrested for a second time in February of last year.

The United States has repeatedly condemned Iran’s security crackdowns on workers. The U.S. State Department said in a statement that the Islamic Republic regime could have paid workers’ wages in Iran with the amount it has spent in Syria.

Source: Voice of America