NCRI – An unknown number of Tehran's Bazaar merchants ended up in Tehran's notorious Evin prison following an all out shutdown of the markets throughout the country last month.
Government imposed added value tax sparked a nationwide strike by merchants which lasted over a week and temporally ended with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement that the implementation of the law would be postponed for a year.
At the same time with the mullahs' regime official back down, a widespread crackdown against the merchants began in the cities which their bazaaris were involved in the strikes.
It is widely believed that among the detainees are merchants arrested in other cities and then transferred to Tehran.
On October 15, a large number of Isfahan bazaar merchants and youths arrested following the value-added tax law ended up in ward "D" of the city's prison.
The bazaaris have occupied all solitary confinement cells in block D in the central city of Isfahan maximum security prison. Ward "D" is the equivalent of the dreaded ward 209 of the notorious Tehran's Evin prison which is run by the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
The new prisoners have not been able to establish minimum contact with their families.
Isfahan bazaar was the first in the country to go on strike over the new regulation. The bazaars in other major Iranian cities followed suite.
