Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, Another Teacher and Members of the Teachers’ Syndicate, Sentenced to Prison and Flogging

Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, secretary general of the Tehran Teachers’ Syndicate, has been sentenced by the court to eight months in prison and 10 lashes.

Hossein Taj, the lawyer of Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, a member of the Teachers’ Syndicate, wrote in a post on his Twitter account that Mohammad Taghi Fallahi has been sentenced to eight months in prison and 10 lashes on charges of “disrupting public order,” with the sentence suspended for three years.

According to the judiciary lawyer, this verdict was issued to Mr. Fallahi on Monday, August 18.

Mohammad Taghi Fallahi was arrested on April 2 in the final moments of a peaceful gathering on Iran’s Teachers’ Day, after reading the closing resolution of the gathering which addressed “teachers’ professional demands and their requests from the government,” along with Rasoul Badaghi, another member of the Teachers’ Syndicate, by plainclothes officers.

Six days after his arrest, on April 8, this labor rights activist was temporarily released from prison on bail pending the completion of judicial proceedings.

This is not the first time prison and flogging sentences have been issued against teachers in Iran. In mid-July of this year, Hamid Rahmati, a member of the Isfahan Teachers’ Syndicate, was sentenced by Branch 103 of the Shahrekord Criminal Court to three years in prison, 74 lashes, and a fine of 2 million tomans.

Also, in late March, Ataollah Ahsani, a teacher residing in Divandareh, was sentenced by the criminal court of the county to seven years in prison.

Source: Voice of America