NCRI – According to information from the Kurdish city of Sanandaj, western Iran, Mr. Mahmoud Salehi, representative of Bakers' Union in the neighboring city of Saqez, continues to remain in detention despite completing his prison term. He is currently on hunger strike in Sanandaj prison to protest against his ongoing detention.
In the past two days, a number of labor activists, students and people from all walks of life from Sanandaj, Kamyaran and Paveh have gathered outside the local judiciary's office in the province to call for Mr. Salehi's release. He has been suffering from kidney ailment while in prison and he is in a critical condition.
Mr. Salehi was arrested for taking part in the last year's May Day celebrations in Saqez and was sentenced to one year imprisonment.
The Iranian Resistance condemns arbitrary arrests of labor activists and suppression of thousands of deprived workers who are struggling for their most basic rights and calls on all international human rights organizations as well as the International Labor Organization (ILO) to condemn the clerical regime's anti-labor laws and do their outmost to release the detainees.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
March 28, 2008
