On Feb. 18, judicial authorities in Iran carried out lashing sentences against labor leaders Shiva Kheirabadi and Sosuan Razani for their participation in May Day events last year. Razani received a 9-month suspended sentence and 70 lashes, while Kheirabadi received a 4-month suspended sentence and 15 lashes. On Feb. 21, similar sentences were handed down to two other labor activists in Sanandaj, Abdullah Khani and Qaleb Hosseini. Khani was sentenced 40 lashes and 91 days in prison, and Hosseini was sentenced to 50 lashes and six months in prison. The lashings were carried out immediately, and they were both transferred to Sanandaj Central Prison.

More arrests were carried out that week as well. Ali-Akbar Pirhadi, a leader of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company, was arrested Feb. 19 by the intelligence police. Two leaders of the Vahed Syndcate, Mansour Osanloo and Ebrahim Madadi, are currently imprisoned with lengthy prison sentences.

Rahim Beshagh, a leader of the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company Workers Syndicate, was arrested by the intelligence police on Feb. 22. Beshagh, who had gone to the court in city of Shoush for a private matter, was ordered by the judge to go to the intelligence office for questions regarding the Syndicate and his opposition to the Islamic Labour Council, a pro-government association in the workplace to control labor activities. There is no news about Beshagh's status as of this time. (IASWI, Feb. 22)

See our last posts on Iran's civil opposition and the labor struggle.

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