Osanloo was with two colleagues on his way to the Ministry of Labour in Tehran when he was approached by plain clothes security agents, who told him he was under arrest. When Osanloo asked for a warrant he was beaten, threated with a gun and forced into a car.

The ITF, the ITUC and others in the international trade union movement have written protesting against this latest arrest - see below. We are now asking ITF affiliates to send similar messages, using the link above. You can also do this by visiting the Labourstart website.

Iran: Free Mansour Osanloo now

Mansour Osanloo, the President of the Syndicate of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed) was arrested by plain clothes agents, who refused to show any identification or arrest warrants, on Sunday, November 19, 2006 while he, along with two other union board members, were on their way to the office of the Labour Ministry in Tehran East. The agents physically and verbally assaulted Osanloo and Ebrahim Madadi, the union's vice-president, and one of them pointed a gun at Mr. Madadi and fired a bullet in the air. The agents finally forced Mr. Osanloo into a waiting car and drove away.

Mansour Osanloo.

Osanloo, who had an eye operation last week and whose eye was bandaged at time of his arrest, was summoned to attend a court hearing on November 20, 2006. In December 2005, Mr. Osanloo was arrested following a job action by members of his union. He was released on 150 million Toman (about $US 165,000) bail after about 8 months in Tehran's Evin prison.

In addition, according to the latest news, Mahmoud Salehi, the former President of the Bakery Workers' Association of the city of Saqez and a co-founder of the Coordinating Committee to Form Worker's Organization, has been sentenced to 4 years imprisonment. Jalal Hosseini, a labour activist in the city of Saqez and an executive board member of the Coordinating Committee to Form Worker's Organization in the Western Iran, was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment. Borhan Divargar, another labour activists arrested on May Day 2004, was earlier sentenced to two years in prison. The initial arrests and the final charges against the above labour activists were made in connection with their attempts to participate in May Day 2004 celebration in Saqez.