Irán, República Islámica del - Persecution of members of the Coordinating Committee to Help form Workers’ Organisations (2012)

Throughout the year, members of the Coordinating Committee to Help form Workers’ Organisations (CCHWO) were targeted for arrest. On 30 April and 1 May, several labour activists and members of the CCHWO in Sanandaj and Saghez cities were arrested and held for several weeks. They were later released on high bail terms. Activists were pressurised to leave the committee. Mohammad Jarahi, previously a worker at a petrochemical complex in Asalooye was arrested on 20 June. He had previously been arrested in 2007 and sentenced to four months imprisonment, but released early as a result of a protest campaign launched by labour activists in Tabriz. Ayat Niafar, another member of the CCHWO was arrested on 17 October and released on bail. Previously annulled prison sentences from 2007 were reactivated for Sheis Amani, and Sedigh Karimi, - both members of the Board of Directors of the Iranian Workers’ Free Trade Union. In August, Kourosh Bakhshandeh, a member of CCHWO, was sentenced in absentia to a one year suspended sentence and released on bail.