Esmail Bakshi, a labour activist from the Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Workers’ Union, was arrested on the evening of 20 January 2019 by unknown security forces just one month after he was released from an earlier arrest in December. Mr Bakhshi was detained from 18 November to 12 December 2018 after playing a leading role in the Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Workers’ Union strike. He was tortured by the Iranian regime’s security forces while in jail, a fact which the Iranian government has denied.
Bakhshi had recently published a letter in which he wrote about the torture he was subjected to when he was detained for the first time. His letter has inspired many victims of torture in Iran to come forward and speak up about their torture in prison.
The security forces also arrested Sepideh Gholian and her brother Mehdi Gholian on 19 January. Sepideh Gholian is a journalist and a student activist who was first arrested with Bakhshi and several other sugarcane workers in the protests last year where workers demanded unpaid wages and better working conditions. The arrest of Bakhshi and Gholian is another attempt by the government in Iran to silence the protesters in Iran and to stop the released prisoners from exposing the condition of prison and the horrific tortures they were subjected to.
Esmail Bakhshi was released from prison on 30 October 2019. Sepideh Gholian was released from prison on 4 December 2019 with her bail set at almost US$50 000.