|
Iran frees Kurdish labour activist Mahmoud
Salehi
8.4.2008
|
|
|
|
April
8, 2008
Sanandaj-Sina, Iranian Kurdistan, -- Iran has
freed on bail a Kurdish labour activist after one
year in jail, a press report said on Monday.
"Mahmoud Salehi was freed on Sunday on a
400-million-rial (43,500 dollars) bail after more
than a year in jail," the Kargozaran newspaper
reported.
A former leader of the bakers' union in the town of
Saqez, in the western Kurdistan province, Salehi was
jailed for one year on charges of harming national
security in April 2007. |
Mahmoud Salehi |
Salehi went on a total hunger strike in March amid
fears that new charges that had been issued against
him would prolong his detention beyond his scheduled
release date,www.ekurd.net
the rights watchdog
Amnesty International has said.
Salehi, founded a bakers' union in Iranian Kurdistan
and at the time of his arrest in 2004, was trying to
set up Iran's first national bakers' union.
He began serving a one-year prison sentence on 9
April, 2007, after being convicted of "conspiring to
commit crimes against national security".
According to Amnesty, the new charges involved
communicating with individuals outside of prison to
issue messages of solidarity to other activists
being held in jail.
Rights groups and unions had been calling on the
Islamic republic to release Salehi and the head of
Tehran bus conductors' union Mansour Ossalou, who
has pushed for stronger unions in Iran.
Ossalou was last year sentenced to four years in
prison for acting against national security and to
an additional year for disseminating propaganda
against Iran's Islamic system.
Iran has stepped up its crackdown on rights
activists in recent years and dozens of women's
rights advocates, students and unionists have been
arrested on security charges.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
AFP, AKI
Iranian Kurdistan
**
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Îranę or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatę
Kurdistan (East of Kurdistan)) is an unofficial name
for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has
borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes the
greater parts of West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan
Province, Kermanshah Province, and Ilam Province.
Kurds form the majority of the population of this
region with an estimated population of 4 million.
The region is the eastern part of the greater
cultural-geographical area called Kurdistan.
More about Iranian Kurdistan
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 