Case preparation and prison sentence for Jafar Azimzadeh
In an interview with the Human Rights Campaign in Iran, an informed source reported the serious physical condition of Jafar Azimzadeh, secretary of the board of directors of the Free Workers Union in Evin Prison, and said that the labor activist contracted the coronavirus in Evin Prison while he was in prison with a new case filed instead of being released.
This informed source told the campaign that Jafar Azimzadeh was sentenced to one year and one month in prison by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in a new case, and this sentence was confirmed by the Court of Appeals.
Jafar Azimzadeh, a labor activist and secretary of the board of directors of the Free Workers Union of Iran, was sentenced to six years in prison by the Revolutionary Court of Tehran in 2015 for his union activities. He is a 50-year-old welder and secretary of the board of directors of the Free Workers Union of Iran labor organization. He was one of the coordinators and signatories of a protest petition in which more than 30,000 workers wrote to the Minister of Labor and the Islamic Consultative Assembly demanding an increase in the minimum wage for Iranian workers.
An informed source told the campaign: “In March 2019, due to the coronavirus, those who had served a third of their sentences and had served up to five years were included in the amnesty. This also included Mr. Azimzadeh, but for four months they said the prosecutor’s office had opposed it. During this time, they prepared a new case, and after they prepared a new case and the sentence was confirmed, they said that the previous case was included in the amnesty and that they were now serving the new sentence. That is, within twenty days, they prepared a case against Mr. Azimzadeh and ruled not to release him.”
This informed source explained: “In 2019, in support of sick political prisoners who had to go out of prison for treatment at their own expense, Mr. Azimzadeh and several other people inside the prison wrote a statement protesting this prison policy and handed it over to the prison. One of the examples of the charges in the new case is this statement. There was also an audio file that Mr. Azimzadeh had released in protest of the heavy sentences of those arrested on Labor Day last year. These two issues became examples of the charge of propaganda against the system and Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced them to one year and one month, which the Court of Appeals also confirmed. They are now serving this new sentence.”
This informed source informed the Campaign of the concerns of Mr. Azimzadeh’s family and said: “Mr. Azimzadeh’s family is very worried. He suffered a lot during the 64-day strike he went on three years ago. He has both heart and kidney problems. Now that he has contracted COVID-19, instead of releasing him, they have quarantined him with ten other people in the central ward of Evin Prison without any facilities. His family is really in a very bad situation and is extremely worried about his health.”
Akram Rahimpour, Jafar Azimzadeh's wife, has also been accused of spreading lies through interviews with foreign media outlets for her interview about her husband's condition and has been sentenced to 6 months of suspended imprisonment by the Second Interrogation Branch of Evin Prison.
Jafar Azimzadeh had previously told the campaign on October 16, 2016: “I was sentenced to six years in prison once in 2015 due to my completely legal and peaceful labor activities in the form of the Free Workers Union. Now I have been sentenced again to eleven years, and I have another case on charges of disturbing public opinion and disrupting public order that is being heard in court. The reason for all these charges and cases has been union activities, such as forming the Free Workers Union, giving interviews to the media, and participating in peaceful and civil labor rallies and strikes in defense of workers’ rights, including my own as a worker.”
The “Free Union of Iranian Workers,” an organization of which Jafar Azimzadeh is a member and which was sentenced to prison for its formation and activities, was formed in 2007, as stated in its statute, by a group of workers, wage earners, and dismissed and unemployed workers in various occupations, with the aim of improving the living standards of workers in Iran. Collecting a protest petition signed by forty thousand workers, protest rallies in front of the parliament and the Ministry of Labor, leading and implementing these rallies, protesting against the minimum wage, protesting against anti-labor changes in the labor law, and meeting with other labor organizations such as the Tehran Unitary Enterprise Workers’ Union and the Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Workers’ Union have been some of the activities of the members of this union in recent years.
Source: Human Rights Campaign
