Security crackdown on Iranian protesters; 74 lashes sentence on dismissed worker for insulting labor minister carried out

Reports indicate that Davoud Rafiei, a dismissed worker from Pars Khodro Company, has received 74 lashes on charges of “insulting” the labor minister, despite the sentence not being finalized.

Based on images circulated on social networks, the lashing sentence of Davoud Rafiei, a dismissed worker from Pars Khodro Company, has been carried out.

The Telegram channel “Free Union of Iranian Workers” reported that the “non-finalized” sentence of 74 lashes for this dismissed worker from Pars Khodro Company was carried out when he went to the prosecutor’s office to follow up on his case.

Reports indicate that Mr. Rafiei was dismissed from Pars Khodro Company in 2012 during labor protests. He, who was arrested in 2017 labor protests for possessing a document with the slogan “Death to the Labor Minister,” has been sentenced to endure 74 lashes on charges of insulting the labor minister.

Ismail Bakhshi, a labor activist who was previously imprisoned for participating in protests, in response to the execution of this sentence on Twitter described the body of this flogged worker as “the body of all Iranian workers who have been flogged.” He further wrote: “The worker produces through pain and hardship, the leech takes his profit, the leech embezzles, the worker receives his lashes.”

This is not the first time that protesting workers in Iran have been sentenced to lashing. Seyyed Rasoul Taleb Moghadam, a member of the United Company Workers’ Syndicate, was sentenced in September of the previous year by the Revolutionary Court on charges of “propaganda activity against the system” and “disruption of public order” to two years imprisonment, 74 lashes, and two years of exile to Afriyz region, a suburb of Sde district in South Khorasan.

The U.S. State Department has repeatedly condemned violent crackdowns and widespread suppression of protesters, as well as repeated and continuous violations of the rights of Iranian citizens, including workers, by the regime ruling that country, stating that the Islamic Republic regime, with the expense it has incurred in Syria, could have paid the rights of workers in Iran.

Source: Voice of America