Continued Prison Sentences for Labor Activists; Member of Haft Tappeh Workers Syndicate Sentenced to Five Years in Prison
Ali Najati, a member of the Haft Tappeh Workers Syndicate and retired worker, has been sentenced to five years in prison by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court.
Farzaneh Zilabi, the lawyer for Haft Tappeh workers, stated on Thursday, December 12, while speaking with social networks, that this member of the Haft Tappeh Workers Syndicate has been sentenced to five years in prison by Branch 28 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, headed by Judge Moghisseh, on charges of “assembly and conspiracy to act against national security through propaganda activities against the system.”
She said that Ali Najati, along with Ismail Bakhshi, Mohammad Khonaifer, and several other individuals were summoned to court on Mordad 12; however, it remains unclear why his trial was held separately when the nature of the charges against all these individuals was jointly “assembly and conspiracy against national security.”
The Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Workers Syndicate also condemned the verdict issued against this retired worker and stated that “the issuance of such anti-worker verdicts cannot instill fear and terror in workers to continue their struggle against oppression and exploitation, and as long as oppression and exploitation exist, the class struggle of workers will continue.”
Previously, Voice of America reported that Mr. Najati was tried at Tehran’s Revolutionary Court on Sunday, November 10.
Ali Najati, a member of the board of directors of the Haft Tappeh Workers Syndicate, was arrested at his home on November 8 of last year on charges of involvement in strikes by Haft Tappeh sugar cane workers, and after some time, on the eighth of Bahman of the same year, he was released from prison on medical leave due to having heart and respiratory illness.
The United States has repeatedly condemned Iran’s security approach to workers, and previously, the U.S. State Department’s Farsi Twitter account had announced in a post that “the Islamic Republic regime, with the expense it incurred in Syria, could have paid workers’ wages in Iran.”
Source: Voice of America
