Teacher and Labor Activist in Mahabad Sentenced to 15 Months in Prison

“Yaser Amini-Azer,” a teacher and labor activist from Mahabad, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Mahabad.

The Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported on Wednesday, September 6, that Yaser Amini-Azer, a teacher and labor activist, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Mahabad on charges of “actions against national security.” According to the court ruling, “the guilt of the accused and the conviction rendered are substantiated by evidence and judicial laws and circumstances existing in the case.”

In another section of the ruling, while rejecting the appeal, it states that the verdict is final.

In late April of this year, a group of teachers from the city of Marivan held a protest gathering in support of imprisoned teachers and in opposition to the arrest of this labor activist from Mahabad, carrying placards and handwritten statements of their demands along the Zarivar Lake route.

Yaser Amini-Azer was arrested on Tuesday, April 17, as he was leaving school by security forces and was transferred to the detention facility of the Urmia Information Office.

The labor activist was temporarily released on May 30 after posting bail of 50 million tomans until the completion of legal proceedings.

This is not the first time prison sentences have been issued for teachers in Iran. In late August of this year, Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, Secretary-General of the Iranian Teachers Trade Association in Tehran, was sentenced to eight months in prison and 10 lashes by the court.

Also, in mid-July, “Hamid Rahmati,” a member of the Iranian Teachers Trade Association in Isfahan, was sentenced by Branch 103 of the Shahr-e Kord Criminal Court to three years in prison, 74 lashes, and a fine of 2 million tomans.

In April of this year, when teachers held protest gatherings in opposition to the monetization and privatization of education in more than thirty cities across the country, their gatherings were severely suppressed and many were arrested. Some of them were faced with harsh sentences on charges of “conspiracy and collusion to commit crimes against national security,” “propaganda against the system,” and “disturbing public order” and were sent to prison.

Recently, the U.S. State Department, in its latest human rights report, wrote about the situation of Iranian teachers and referred to at least three leaders of teachers’ labor organizations in Iran who are imprisoned with unjust sentences.

Source: Voice of America