On Tuesday, Dec 26, 2017, in response to the call of Robabeh Rezaie a group of labor activists gathered opposite the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Iran to protest the health condition of Reza Shahabi. The gathering ended by the involvement of Iranian Law Enforcement Forces (NAJA) who arrested Robabeh Rezaei and 50 other people but released them after a few hours.
Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has been informed that NAJA and plainclothes forces had been present around the building of the Ministry of Workers and Social Affairs from the morning of Dec 26, 2017 and had raided the peaceful gathering once the rally had begun and seriously beaten up a number of participants.
As a result, Hassan Saeedi, a member of the Syndicate of the Joint Venture, was transferred to the emergency room of the Shariati Hospital in Tehran due to being beaten up by the security forces, while Robabeh Rezaei was arrested and transferred to Evin Prison along with at least 28 student and labor activists.
After a few hours of arrest, all detainees were released from Evin Prison once they agreed to sign a letter of promise to stop the protest.
According to a recent statement made by his wife, Shahabi, a board member of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (UWTSBC), was denied hospitalisation after suffering from a stroke twice at Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj.
Shahabi was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to six years in prison. In September 2014, Shahabi was granted medical leave but nearly three years later he was informed that the time he had spent outside the prison on medical furlough did not count as time served in the prison and that he would have to return to the prison.
When Shahabi returned to Rajaee Shahr Prison on August 8, 2017, he was told that he would have to serve the remaining five months of his sentence before he was released on furlough, as well as a year for his alleged role in a clash between guards and prisoners in Evin Prison on April 17, 2014, that left many prisoners injured.
In August of this year, Mr Shahabi was sentenced to a one-year imprisonment in another case, and he went on a 50 days hunger strike to protest against what he called “inhumane” detention conditions in the Islamic Republic’s prisons.
Photos from today’s protest:
