Irán, República Islámica del - Sugar union leaders remain in prison (2012)

On 1 December 2010, Reza Rakhshan, executive board president of an independent union at the giant cane growing and processing Haft Tapeh complex, in the southern city of Shush, was sentenced to six months in prison. The charge was “spreading lies” – in an article Rakhshan dedicated to the union’s second anniversary. Rakhshan, previously the union’s communications officer who had been arrested on 4 January, released on bail and then dismissed from his job, was the second union president to be thrown into jail, following the imprisonment of Ali Nejati in 2009. On 12 November 2011, Ali Nejati was transferred to Dezful’s Fajr prison despite ill health. Previously in 2010 three other Haft Tapeh union members were convicted and sentenced to six months although it is not clear if they have begun serving their sentence. The Haft Tapeh trade union is one of very few genuine trade unions that appear to have the right to exist within the national legal framework.