Ali Nejati still incarcerated,No news of Nejati’s whereabouts!

According to the latest news from Iran, Mr. Ali Nejati is still
incarcerated and even his family members have not been able to meet with him. His wife
has gone to a number of different authorities, including the intelligence office of the city
of Shoush and the Islamic Revolution Court in city of Dezful, but they all refused to
provide her with any information about Mr. Nejati’s whereabouts.
According to reliable information from Iran, Mr. Nejati was under extreme pressures for
the first two days of his arrest and was not allowed to sleep or eat.
Agents of the Intelligence Ministry raided the residence of Mr. Ali Nejati, the president
of the board of directors of the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company Workers’ Syndicate,
and arrested Mr. Nejati on March 8, 2009. Also, in the evening of February 28th,
intelligence agents had raided the residence of Mr. Ali Nejati and searched his home and
confiscated some documents related to the Syndicate.
According to other rerports, Mr. Mohammad Heydari Mehr, a board member of the Haft
Tapeh Sugar Cane Company Workers’ Syndicate, was given a verdict verbally by the city
of Dezful’s Islamic Revolution Court. He has been given 8 months of suspended
sentence, 4 month of imprisonment and 3 years of prohibition form participation in any
workers’ election. Four other board members who were put on trial on February 17th and
23rd, Feridoun Nikoufard, Jalil Ahmadi, Ali Nejati and Ghorban Alipour, are still waiting
for the court verdict. It seems that a verdict has been issued against thes workers but no
written order has been given to them as of this time.
Within recent weeks, seven other members of the board of directors of the Haft Tapeh
workers’ syndicate had been arrested in following order:
February 22, 2009: Rahim Boshagh
February 28, 2009: Reza Rakhshan
March 2, 2009: Ghorban Alipour and Mohammad Heydari Mehr
March 3, 2009: Feridoun Nikoufard, Jalil Ahmadi and Nejat Dehli
All these workers were released by March 5th and 7th, 2009 on bail. At this time, only
the president of the Syndicate, Mr. Nejati, is incarcerated. These arrests are part of the
recent wave of repression and intimidation of labour activists in Iran. In particular, the
government is trying to impose The Islamic Labour Council, which is a governmentsponsored
agency, on workers in order to undermine workers’ indepedent union. Workers
overwhelmingly boycotted the election of the Islamic Council, which is considered a
repressive force that supports government and employers.
Free Ali Nejati now!
Release all jailed workers now!
International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran