Shapour Ehsani Rad, a member of the board of directors of the Free Workers Union of Iran, was sentenced to prison and exile.
Shapour Ehsani Rad, a labor activist and board member of the Free Workers Union of Iran, was sentenced to 6 years in prison by the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
According to news published on social media, Shapour Ehsanirad, a member of the board of directors of the Free Union of Iranian Workers, has been sentenced by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court to 6 years in prison, two years in exile, and a ban on membership in political-social parties, groups, and factions on charges of "gathering and colluding against national security" and "propaganda activity against the system."
According to the news, this labor activist was sentenced to five years in prison on the charge of "gathering and colluding against the security of the country" and one year in prison on the charge of "propaganda activity against the system." As an additional punishment, he was sentenced to two years of exile to one of the districts of Nikshahr in Sistan and Baluchestan province and banned from membership in political parties and socio-political groups.
The Free Union of Iranian Workers condemned the issuance of this sentence in a statement, writing that the five-page sentence issued against Shapour Ehsani Rad is entirely based on fabricated documents that are trying in every way to turn union and labor activities into security issues in order to sentence workers and activists of the labor movement to long prison sentences.
The statement continued by stating that this type of attempt by the judicial institution to suppress and destroy union activities is completely condemned and all sentences issued against workers based on false accusations must be overturned.
Shapour Ehsani Rad was arrested by security forces at his workplace in early August and was temporarily released from Evin Prison after posting bail pending the completion of the trial.
In late September of this year, following the issuance of heavy sentences to a number of labor activists and the police attack on a gathering of HEPCO workers and the beating of these workers, the Free Union of Workers of Iran issued a statement condemning the "widespread wave of repression of workers" and calling it an "attempt by government institutions to intimidate" workers and society as a whole.
In part of this statement, referring to the heavy sentences handed down to labor activists, including sentences of 6 to 18 years in prison for seven of the Haft Tappeh detainees, and the filing of cases against other activists, including Parvin Mohammadi, Nahid Khodajoo, Shapour Ehsani Rad, Nasrin Javadi, Farhad Sheikhi, Hadi Soleimani, and Mehdi Fakhri, and the six-year prison sentence handed down to Jafar Azimzadeh, chairman of the board of directors of the Free Workers Union of Iran, the statement said that these cases reflect the fact that "the ruling apparatus has no desire to respond to and fulfill the demands and demands of workers, teachers, and retirees."
The United States has repeatedly condemned the Iranian regime's security crackdown on workers. The US State Department recently said in a message that the Islamic Republic's regime could have paid the salaries of workers in Iran with the money it spent in Syria.
Source: Voice of America
