Sugar Mill Workers Call for International Action to Free Detained Colleagues Esmail Bakhshi and Sepideh Qoliyan
FEBRUARY
14, 2019
Esmail Bakhshi and Sepideh Qoliyan Pressured
to Retract Torture Allegations
A union representing workers of
the Haft Tappeh sugar mill in the Iranian city of Shush, Khuzestan Province,
has called on individuals and international organizations to demand the release
of union representative Esmail Bakhshi and freelance reporter
Sepideh Qoliyan from the Intelligence Ministry’s detention center in Ahvaz.
“We are aware that in the past
few days, and at the time of their arrest, they were asked to lie and confess
against their will in front of a camera that torture was never carried out and
that the whole story was dictated to them by so-called adversaries and
anti-revolutionary media outlets,” said the union in a post on its Telegram app
channel on February 11, 2019.
“We are aware that they are
under intense pressure to express remorse and write statements against
themselves,” it added.
In its statement, the union
called on “all labor activists, human rights advocates and journalists to
translate this [statement] and file complaints with relevant organizations and
ask them to do whatever is necessary.”
“We want a case opened against
the Iranian government for its violation of the rights of these two individuals
and strongly urge an end to the pressures on Bakhshi and Qoliyan (also spelled
Gholian) to make forced confessions and sign pledges against their will,” the
union added.
Bakhshi and Qoliyan, both
peaceful advocates of worker’s rights in Iran, were initially arrested on November 18, 2018, and
detained for roughly a month in an Intelligence Ministry-run detention center
in Ahvaz.
After they were released on
bail, they both stated that they had been tortured and posted statements
online that were later confirmed by eyewitnesses.
On January 20, two weeks after
the publication of their social media statements, Bakhshi and Qoliyan wererearrested by agents of the
Intelligence Ministry.
Ten days after Bakhshi stated
that he’d been repeatedly beaten during his 25 days in detention and left in
his cell in the Intelligence Ministry’s detention center in the city of Ahvaz
without medical care, the judiciary launched a “two-day” sham investigation that excluded
eyewitnesses and exonerated the Intelligence Ministry.
Bakhshi was re-arrested on
January 20 along with Qoliyan. Both individuals are at grave risk of suffering further harm
while government officials remain focused on preventing statements like theirs from becoming
public again via social media.
Throughout the past two years,
workers of the Haft Tappeh sugar mill have launched several strikes demanding
months of unpaid wages.
Labor activism in Iran is
treated as a national security offense, strikers are often fired and risk
arrest, and labor leaders are prosecuted under catchall national
security charges and sentenced to long prison terms.
“We want them [Bakhshi and
Qoliyan] to be freed unconditionally and the cases against them, as well as
againstAli Nejati, Mohammad Khoneyfar and
[Sepideh’s brother] Mehdi Qoliyan, to be closed,” the union said in its
statement.
Hossein Raeesi, a formerly
Iran-based lawyer now living in Canada, told the Center for Human Rights in
Iran (CHRI) that activists could petition the United Nations and the International
Labor Organization on behalf of the
detainees.
“There are human rights NGOs
that have an advisory role in the UN,” he said. “They have more experience and
are in a better position to file a petition and follow it up.”
“Also the UN special rapporteur
on the situation of human rights in Iran [Javaid Rehman] can also take necessary
steps,” he said.
On January 22, CHRI called on the Iranian
authorities to release Bakhshi and Qoliyan, ensure their protection, and
re-open an independent and impartial investigation into their alleged torture.
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