Mansour Osanloo, the president of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed) trade union, and Ebrahim Madadi, the vice-president of the same union, are still in jail, serving prison sentences of five and three and a half years respectively for defending workers’ rights. Osanloo has been incarcerated since July 2007 and is currently placed in Reja’I Shahr prison, west of Tehran, among prisoners who have been convicted of crimes such as murder. His health is continuously deteriorating due to pre-existing medical problems as well as new ones gained through the way he was treated in prison. In April he received a much-needed check-up in an outside medical clinic.
In June 2010 the ILO published an Interim Report of the Committee on Freedom of Association on Case 2508 (complaint against the Government of Iran presented by the ITUC and the International Transport Workers’ Federation ITF). The report quoted the Iranian Government’s indication that Osanloo was to be pardoned. However, the Iranian government failed to fulfil its promises, and on 1 August Osanloo’s sentence was extended by one more year. Madadi has been in jail since December 2008. Both men have been maltreated while in custody, and both are recognised as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International.