Haft Tappeh workers' lawyer announces arrest of four striking workers

Farzaneh Zeilabi, a lawyer for Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers, announced the arrest of four workers of this agricultural-industrial unit by the Intelligence and Security Police of Shush city.

As a month has passed since the strike and march of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company workers, Ms. Zeilabi said in an interview with Emtaad, affiliated with the Islamic Iran Nation Unity Party, on Tuesday: Four of her clients; Muslim Cheshmekhavar, Yousef Bahmani, Ebrahim Abbasi, and Mohammad Khanifer, were arrested by the Intelligence and Security Police of Shush and transferred to Dezful Prison.

The independent Haft Tappeh Workers' Channel reported that Susa security police officers treated the four Haft Tappeh workers with violence when they arrested them.

According to Farzaneh Zeilabi, Mr. Khanifer and Mr. Bahmani were arrested while they were infected with the coronavirus and were recovering.

He considered the arrest of these two workers to be contrary to the law, logic, Sharia, and morality in the current circumstances, and added that Mohammad Reza Dabirian, another Haft Tappeh sugarcane worker, who had previously been summoned by the Shush City Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office on charges of "insulting officials and spreading lies and slander," has been sentenced to 222 lashes.

According to this report, the sentence of 222 lashes was issued in the circumstances that the worker is infected with the coronavirus and has requested an extension of time for consideration.

Farzaneh Zeilabi added that, according to the Criminal Procedure Code, her client's excuse was justified and legal.

Ms. Zeilabi noted that Mr. Dabirian's conviction was carried out in an "illegal session" because her client was not present due to contracting COVID-19, and "there was no possibility of explaining the charges to him and basically no possibility for the accused to defend himself."

According to this report, the complainant of this sugarcane worker was Haft Tappeh, the head of the Susa Security Police.

The lawyer defending the Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers called on the judiciary to investigate, before it is too late, what he called the illegal process in the Haft Tappeh workers' cases at the Susa Courthouse and the instigators and hands behind it.

Previously, the independent channel of Haft Tappeh workers had accused the governor of Khuzestan, government and judicial officials of this province, as well as the city of Shush, of financial corruption and supporting the private employer of the company, and had called for their dismissal and trial.

The security and judicial clashes with Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers took place in a situation where Hatem Shakerami, Deputy Minister of Labor of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, had called on the company's workers the week before to return to work and, while "carrying out their job activities, refrain from any gatherings, strikes and walkouts."

This government official had said: "The Islamic Labor Council must cooperate with the management of this complex to continue the workers' activities."

He asked specialized agencies in Khuzestan Province to approach the issue of Haft Tappeh Sugar Company with a specialized perspective and "prevent the company's issues from being reflected in labor circles, especially problems such as sit-ins and gatherings inside or outside the company's premises and in the city."

Also, Mohammad Baqir Ulfat, Deputy Minister of Social Affairs and Crime Prevention of the Judiciary, referring to the judicial system's opposition to any workers' gatherings and protest movements, said: "Workers must pursue any protests and requests solely through legal channels so that the enemies of the system do not create any grounds for any abuse and crisis-making of the existing space."

The strike by Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers began a month ago. The striking workers are demanding payment of back wages, payment of insurance premiums, reinstatement of fired colleagues, cancellation of privatization, and arrest of the company's CEO.

So far, only one month's wages have been paid to thousands of Haft Tapeh sugarcane workers, and the wages for the months of May and July have been promised to be paid by August 10th.

However, Islamic Republic officials have not yet commented on the return of fired colleagues to work, the cancellation of privatization, and the arrest of Omid Asadbeigi, CEO of Haft Tappeh Sugar Company.

Omid Asadbeigi, along with Mehrdad Rostamichegini, the company's chairman, and a number of others, have been accused of misappropriating $1.5 billion.

The Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company, with an area of ​​24,000 hectares, was transferred to Omid Asadbeigi and Mehrdad Rostamichegini in the winter of 2015 with an advance payment of six billion tomans.

The company then faced many problems, including long delays in paying wages, which led to worker protests.

Haft Tappeh Sugarcane workers have repeatedly called for the company to be privatized. They say the company should be either owned by the government or handed over to the workers. Hassan Rouhani's government has opposed this demand.

Meanwhile, journalist Ismail Mohammadvali and a photographer accompanying him, who were arrested by the Susa security police, were released after a day.

Source: Radio Farda