File Building and Prison Sentence for Jafar Azimzadeh
An informed source in an interview with the Human Rights Campaign in Iran reported on the severe physical condition of Jafar Azimzadeh, secretary of the board of directors of the Vahed-e Azad (Independent) Workers’ Union, in Evin Prison, and said that this labor activist contracted coronavirus in Evin Prison under circumstances where instead of being released, he is serving time in prison with a new case file built against him.
This informed source told the Campaign that Jafar Azimzadeh in a new case file by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court was sentenced to one year and one month in prison, and this sentence was confirmed by the Court of Appeals.
Jafar Azimzadeh, a labor activist and secretary of the board of directors of the Vahed-e Azad Workers’ Union, was sentenced to six years in prison by the Tehran Revolutionary Court in 2015 due to his union activities. He is a 50-year-old welder and secretary of the board of directors of the Vahed-e Azad Workers’ Union of Iran. He was among the coordinators and signatories of a protest petition through which more than thirty thousand workers in a letter to the Minister of Labor and the Islamic Consultative Assembly demanded an increase in the minimum wage for Iranian workers.
An informed source told the Campaign: “In March 2020 due to coronavirus, those who had sentences up to 5 years and had completed one third of their sentence were included in a pardon. This also applied to Mr. Azimzadeh, but for up to 4 months they said the prosecution objected. During this time they built a new case against him, and after the new case was built and the sentence was confirmed, they said the previous case was included in the pardon and now he is serving the new sentence. That is, within twenty days they built a case against Mr. Azimzadeh and issued a sentence to keep him imprisoned.”
This informed source explained: “In 2019, in support of sick political prisoners who had to go outside the prison at their own personal expense for treatment, Mr. Azimzadeh and several others issued a statement inside the prison protesting this prison policy and submitted it to prison authorities. One instance of the charges in the new case file is this statement. There was also an audio file that Mr. Azimzadeh had released in protest of the heavy sentences imposed on those arrested on last year’s Labor Day. These two matters became the basis for charges of propaganda against the system, and Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced him to one year and one month, which the Court of Appeals confirmed exactly, and now he is serving this new sentence.”
This informed source reported the concerns of Mr. Azimzadeh’s family to the Campaign and said: “Mr. Azimzadeh’s family is very worried. He suffered greatly during a 64-day strike he had three years ago and has both heart problems and kidney problems. Now that he has contracted coronavirus, instead of being released, he and ten others have been quarantined in the central ward of Evin Prison with no facilities whatsoever. His family is really in a very bad situation and is extremely concerned about his health.”
Akram Rahimpour, Jafar Azimzadeh’s wife, was also accused of spreading falsehoods through an interview with foreign media about her husband’s condition and was sentenced by Branch Two of the Investigation Unit of Evin Prison to 6 months of suspended imprisonment.
Jafar Azimzadeh previously said to the Campaign on October 17, 2016: “I have been sentenced once in 2015 to six years in prison because of completely legal and peaceful labor activities within the framework of the Vahed-e Azad Workers’ Union. Now I have been sentenced again to eleven years, and I have another case pending in court on charges of disturbing public opinion and disrupting public order. The reason for all these charges and cases has been union activities such as forming the Vahed-e Azad Workers’ Union, interviews with media, and participation in peaceful and civil labor strikes and gatherings in order to defend workers’ rights, including my own rights as a worker.”
The “Vahed-e Azad Workers’ Union of Iran,” an organization in which Jafar Azimzadeh is a member and for which he was imprisoned due to its formation and activities, was established in 2007 with the attendance of a group of workers, wage earners, and unemployed and laid-off workers in various professions, with the aim of improving the living standards of workers in Iran, according to what is stated in its statute. Collecting a protest petition signed by forty thousand workers, protest gatherings in front of Parliament and the Ministry of Labor, organizing and conducting these gatherings, protesting the minimum wage, protesting the creation of anti-worker changes in labor law, meetings and consultations with other worker organizations such as the Vahed Syndicate of Tehran Truck Drivers and the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Workers’ Syndicate have been part of the activities of members of this union in recent years.
Source: Human Rights Campaign
