Some sources reported the torture of Haft Tappeh workers' representative Esmaeil Bakhshi in prison.

Some reports indicate that Ismail Bakhshi, a worker representative of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company who was arrested, was beaten in prison.

The International Alliance in Support of Iranian Workers reported that Esmaeil Bakhshi was “severely beaten and tortured” by security officers after his arrest, leaving his “face bruised and swollen.”

The organization wrote that Ismail Bakhshi suffered stomach bleeding after being "severely beaten" by officers and was then hospitalized.

A few hours after the publication of this report, the Chief Justice of Shush denied beating Mr. Bakhshi in an interview with the Iranian Judiciary News Agency.

In part of his remarks about Bakhshi, this judicial official called him "one of the defendants in illegal gatherings in Shush city."

Esmael Bakhshi was arrested on Sunday, November 17, along with at least 20 people – including members of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers' Representatives Assembly, several labor activists, a civil activist, and a number of company employees and managers – who had appeared at the security police to follow up on the detainees' situation.

The arrested individuals were released from prison after a while on bail or surety, but the detention of Esmaeil Bakhshi and Sepideh Gholian, a civil activist, continues.

At that time, it was announced that Ismail Bakhshi would be released along with the other workers, but a little later, some media outlets reported that he had not been released due to opposition from the Susa City Intelligence Department.

Previously, Bakhshi's lawyer and an official from the Iranian Ministry of Labor had announced that the charges against this labor activist were "security-related" and that for this reason he would remain in detention until further notice.

This week, after six days of her arrest in the Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers' protests, Sepideh Qolyan told her family in a phone call that she was likely to be issued a one-month detention order.

Source: Voice of America