Disturbing tactics to break jailed workers in Iran

Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi continue to be detained by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry following their arrest on 1st May for taking part in this year’s May Day rally in the port town of Asaluye, in the south of Iran. Moradi and Azadi are veteran labour activists and founding members of the Free Union of Iranian Workers (Ettehadiye Azad e Kargaran e Iran).

As the following report shows, denial of medicines and staged telephone calls are among the tactics being used by the Intelligence Ministry to extract information and break the morale and resistance of the jailed workers and their families. The family of Javanmir Moradi are now living in a tent in central Bushehr as they cannot afford the hotel costs. For days they were kept in the dark as to where Moradi was being held, but finally they were told that both Moradi and Azadi were in the custody of the Intelligence Ministry. On Saturday, Fouzieh Khalesi, the wife of Javanmir Moradi, succeeded in obtaining a visiting order from the Judiciary. Nevertheless, the Intelligence Ministry has refused any visits and only allowed 2-minute telephone calls between Moradi and members of his family. On Monday, Fouzieh received a telephone call from Javanmir. As the following report by the Free Union of Iranian Workers shows, the call was set up and directed by the Intelligence Ministry as a tactic of intimidation against Moradi’s family and colleagues and in order to obtain information. The fact that Javanmir Moradi has been forced into making this call, against his will, is an indication of the severity of the pressures and the degrading and inhuman treatment that he is being subjected to.

ILSC-WPI, 14 May 2008
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Javanmir Moradi’s telephone call to Fouzieh Khalesi

Today, 12 May, Javanmir Moradi contacted his wife Fouzieh Khalesi from his mobile. In this telephone conversation, Moradi asked her to talk in Farsi. He later asked her not to stay in the area and to leave.

In response to Fouzieh’s question as to whether he had been given his glasses, Moradi said it did not matter. He gave the same reply to the question about his medicines. Javanmir also asked about the identity of those who were with her.

Fouzieh asked the Intelligence Ministry officers to receive Moradi’s medicines and to give them to him. However, they said they had a doctor themselves.

It should be noted that Javanmir Moradi suffers from a nervous disorder, which makes him severely dependent on his glasses. Without his glasses and medicines, his health will be seriously damaged. They were prescribed by a specialist doctor for Moradi a long time ago.

Our union believes that Javanmir Moradi’s telephone conversation today with his wife was directed by the Intelligence Ministry officials of Bushehr, and holds the highest authorities of the country’s Judiciary and Bushehr’s Intelligence Ministry officials responsible for any physical or psychological damage to Javanmir Moradi. Our union once again calls on all labour and human rights organisations to protest urgently against the inhuman conditions created for Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi and their families and to demand their immediate and unconditional release.

Source: Free Union of Iranian Workers (Ettehadiye Azad e Kargaran e Iran)

Translated by the International Labour Solidarity Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran (ILSC-WPI)