Lack of information on Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi and violent attempt to arrest Fouzieh Khalesi

Since being told by the Intelligence Ministry in Bushehr on 12 May that Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi have been transferred to the Intelligence Ministry in the city of Kermanshah, their families’ attempts in Kermanshah to find out where they are being held have brought no results.

Meanwhile, on 18 May when Fouzieh Khalesi [Moradi’s wife] approached the Intelligence Ministry in Kermanshah, the Ministry’s officers violently tried to arrest her. However, this was resisted by those accompanying her, which resulted in Fouzieh being hurt in the leg and several of those with her being beaten with rifle butts. Since then the attempts of the families to find out from various authorities in Kermanshah about the whereabouts of their loved ones have led nowhere.

Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi are members of the executive board of the Free Union of Iranian Workers. They were working in Asaluye in slave-like conditions and have committed no crime but to try to celebrate May Day.

Depriving the families of Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi of information about the whereabouts of their loved ones and threatening to arrest them, given the deep anxiety and severe psychological pressure that this puts on the spouses and children of these workers, is clear evidence of the use of psychological torture against them.

Thus, in view of the refusal to reveal where Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi are being held and the threat to arrest members of their families, we believe that the lives of Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi are in danger.

We hold the highest levels of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran responsible for the consequences of any physical or psychological harm to these dear [colleagues]. We appeal to all labour and human rights organisations to take urgent and effective action to protest at the situation created for Javanmir Moradi, Taha Azadi and their families, and to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi and all jailed workers and social activists.

The Free Union of Iranian Workers
20 May 2008

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