Jafar Azimzadeh, Director of the Independent Union of Workers of Iran was arrested On 29 January 2019 to serve his 6 years jail sentence.
On top of the prison sentence, on 6 March 2019, Islamic Republic’s judiciary sentenced Azimzadeh to 30 lashes. The excuse for such heinous sentence was that Jafar did not respond to his summon on time. Fortunately following extensive protests, on 17th April his flogging sentence was dropped.
The Islamic Republic of Iran arrests and imprisons workers for their struggles and for defending their rights, their lives and livelihoods and sentence them under charges such as “disturbing public order, and action against national security”.
On the eve of 1 May 2016, Jafar Azimzadeh and Esmail Abdi, a well-known teacher activist, issued a statement to protest against criminalization of union activities such as assemblies and strikes by workers and teachers. On 29 April 2016, they went on hunger strike for the demands. After 63-days-long hunger strike, they were released from prison on 30 June 2016.
Following that, the campaign to stop building security cases against workers in Iran became a social movement. Jafar Azimzadeh was one of the leaders of this movement.
Jafar Azimzadeh was also one of the coordinators of the petition for wage increase that was signed by 40 thousands. He is in jail because for defending workers’ rights and supporting the struggle for a better life.
Islamic regime aims to silence the workers and the society that demand the basic rights such as getting paid for the work they do and having the right to organisation and strike.
We call on all workers’ organisations to strongly condemn Islamic Republic of Iran for its vile attack on workers and to demand immediate and unconditional freedom of Jafar AzimZadeh and all jailed workers and political activists.
Shahla Daneshfar
Shahla.daneshfar2@gmail.com
https://free-them-now.com
Free Them Now! Campaign to Free Jailed Workers in Iran
May11,2019