NCRI – Warning the Iranian regime officials, lawyer of a labor activist, who in protest against his conditions has gone on a hunger strike from April 30, said that they will be responsible if anything happens to his client.
“I consider the head of judiciary, head of supreme court, Attorney General, Tehran Prosecutor, head of Prisons Organization, Intelligence Minister, and other security officials responsible for my client’s life”, said the lawyer.
“It’s now four days that my client is on hunger strike”, he added, “As my client’s lawyer, I warn the officials to do something about it before it’s too late.”
Esmaeil Abdi, who has gone on a hunger strike from April 30, has announced in a letter from Evin Prison that the reason for his hunger strike is to protest against ‘judiciary’s non-independence, issuing security verdicts for teachers and labor union activists’.
Pointing to continued detention of teachers in Hassan Rouhani’s so-called moderate government, Abdi has said in his letter “despite too much speaking of lawfulness, democracy, human rights, and civil liberties by officials in post nuclear deal era, we see how board members of teachers and labor unions are detained, tried in minutes-long courts, and eventually put behind bars on the same charges of “assembly and collusion against national security, propaganda against the regime, and so on.”
Esmaeil Abdi, mathematics teacher and head of Teachers Trade Association, was summoned on 27 June 2015 by Tehran prosecutor after his organizing a number of nationwide rallies aimed at raising their job related demands and calling for release of their imprisoned colleagues. He was arrested upon his arrival at the prosecutor’s office.
Sentenced to six years in jail, Esmaeil Abdi’s appealing the verdict has been rejected by regime’s Supreme Court.
Faced with security charges for their job related activities, a significant number of active members of teachers trade associations including Esmaeil Abdi, Mahmoud Beheshti Langroodi, Ali-Akbar Baghani, Rasoul Bodaghi, and many others have so far been sentenced to dismissal, prison, and exile.
