NCRI – The trend of arbitrary arrests of political activists, civil rights advocates and youths continues in Iran under various pretexts in order to intensify the atmosphere of suppression in society.
On Saturday, May 1, on International Workers’ Day, the Iranian regime’s intelligence agents summoned Mr. Oliaifard, a jurist and a lawyer to the regime’s Revolutionary Court falsely claiming that they seek to review his client’s case. After Mr. Oliaifard appeared at the location, he was arrested instead and taken in chains to prison. Oliaifard represents detained workers’ activists, children’s rights advocates and a number of imprisoned minors on death row.
The clerical regime’s henchmen have charged him with “propaganda against the establishment” and “disseminating lies” in order to impose pressure on Oliaifard. He has also been sentenced to a year in prison. The sentence has not been officially communicated to him or his legal representatives, and he was imprisoned in relation to the ruling for a week after his arrest on March 8, 2010.
In addition, on April 28, two youths identified as Sina Zoheyri Mesgar and Shayan Sadat Sharif were arrested and taken to an unknown location.
On April 27 and 29, Messrs Alireza Hashemi, Secretary General of Iran Teachers’ Organization, Ali Akbar Baghani, Secretary General of the Teachers Trade Association, and Mahmoud Beheshti Langaroudi, the Association’s spokesman, were arrested. Messrs Baghani and Beheshti were taken to Ward 209 of the notorious Evin prison in Tehran while Mr. Hashemi’s family are still unaware of the reason for his arrest, the location of his detention or his situation. Alireza Hashemi was previously arrested on two other occasions (March 2007 and during the nationwide uprising in 2009), and was taken to Evin prison.
The arrests were made as a result of the Association’s protests to the deteriorating living conditions of teachers across the country as well as to the detentions and criminal rulings of the regime with regards to detained teachers, including Abdolreza Qanbari, Abdollah Momeni, Hashem Khastar, Mohammad Davari, Farzad Kamangar and Rasoul Badaqi.
Subsequently, on May 2, Teachers’ Day in Iran, a number of teachers were arrested by the regime’s intelligence agents while commemorating the death of a fallen colleague, Dr. Abolhassan Khanali, at his grave site in Ebn-e Babouyeh.
The arrest of teachers has not been limited to Tehran. In the city of Hamedan, four teachers identified as Jalal Naderi, Ali Najafi, Mohammad Khani and Saeed Jahan Ara have been arrested. The clerical regime’s intelligence agents continuously summon, interrogate and threaten members and officials of the Teachers Trade Association in the cities of Hamedan, Tabriz, and Kermanshah. They also callously issue verdicts of financial penalties and punishment by lashing for the teachers hoping to curb protests on Teachers’ Day. Filtering the weblogs of the Association is among the regime’s other measures to impose pressure on the country’s teachers.
The Iranian Resistance calls on all international human rights organizations, international syndicates of lawyers, and international syndicates of teachers to condemn the suppression of lawyers, teachers, and political activists by the religious fascism ruling Iran. The Iranian Resistance demands urgent measures to end arbitrary arrests in Iran and unconditionally release of political prisoners.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
May 5, 2010
