On April 9, 2007, a commanding officer of the Saqez security forces appeared at Mahmoud Salehi's work and asked him to attend at the office of the prosecutor to negotiate with the governor and the prosecutor about this year's celebration of the international workers' day, which was being organized by Salehi and his colleagues.

However, in the prosecutor's office, Salehi, the former President of the Bakery Workers' Association of the City of Saqez and a well-known labour activist in Iran, was told that the Kurdistan Appeal Court has reached the final verdict on his May Day 2004 case and that he has been sentenced to one year imprisonment and a three year suspended prison sentence. They immediately put Salehi under arrest. Salehi objected to the deceitful and illegal way in which his arrest took place and refused to sign the order.

After that Salehi was taken immediately to the Sanandaj Central Prison. This way, the government authorities did not allow Salehi to contact his family, lawyer and colleagues, and he was not even allowed to take his medications with him. Salehi has major kidney problems, as one of his kidneys has stopped working and the other one is almost failing and without medications and continuous treatment his life would be endangered. Thus far, the verdict of the appeal court has not been handed down to Salehi's lawyers.

Mahmoud Salehi along with Jalal Hosseini, Mohsen Hakimi, Borhan Divargar, Mohammad Abdipoor, Esmail Khodkam and Hadi Tanomand and about 40 other workers were arrested on May 1st 2004 at the beginning of a rally in commemoration of the International Workers' Day in the City of Saqez, Kurdistan Province. The above labour activists, internationally known as the Saqez Seven, went on hunger strike while in custody until they were released on heavy bail on May 12, 2004.

While three of the above seven have since been acquitted, the remaining four continued to face numerous trials. The Saqez Revolutionary Court had previously sentenced Salehi to 4 years imprisonment, while Hosseini, Hakimi and Divargar were each sentenced to two years jail. The Kurdistan Court of Appeal's final verdict changed Salehi's to one year immediate imprisonment and three years suspended sentence.

The appeal court also confirmed the two years imprisonment of Hosseini, Hakimi and Divargar, but those sentences were suspended for three years, which means that they are free now but if they commit any 'illegal' acts during the next three years they would then have to face trials for that particular 'illegal' act and will also have to serve their two years suspended jail sentence.

On April 16, 2007, tens of workers and labour activists, mostly bakery workers of Saqez, staged a peaceful rally in front of Mahmoud Salehi’s workplace, at the Saqez Workers Consumer Cooperative, to defend Salehi’s freedom. However, they were attacked by the security officers as well as plain clothes agents and some were arrested. Workers were attacked by batons and gas sprays and many got injured.

Two of Saqez labour activists (also arrested on May Day 2004), Jalal Hosseini and Mohammad Abdipour, were summoned to the prosecutor’s office to prevent them from attending the protest gathering. Mohammad Abdipour was kept in detention at the prosecutor’s office until the end of the event and Hosseini was warned that he could not attend the rally under no circumstances because of his suspended sentences.

There is also news that Mahmoud Salehi’s 17 year old son, Samarand Salehi, was arrested during the rally. The security forces also closed the Cooperative.

Free Mahmoud Salehi now click here.
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Mahmoud's Letter from Sanandaj Prison, To the ITUC's General Secretary

Dear Mr. Guy Ryder,

Today, April 12, 2007, I got an opportunity to speak with one of my friends on the phone from the Sanandaj prison. During this call, I asked him to inform you through this letter about the circumstances surrounding my kidnapping.

On Monday, April 9th, I was at my work, which is the Saqez Workers’ Consumer Cooperative, when one of the commanding officers of the intelligence section of the security forces of Saqez, came to my work at 12: 30 pm, our time, and told me that the governor and the prosecutor wanted to negotiate regarding the celebration of the First of May in Saqez with me; since this person had been coming to my work numerous times before to invite me for negotiations with the authorities, I did not feel suspicious and left my work along with him.

When I got there, I found out that there wasn’t going to be neither any meetings with the governor or the prosecutor nor any discussion of this year’s May Day event. Right there, one of the authorities of the judiciary gave me the verdict of the appeal court orally, according to which I was sentenced to one year imprisonment and three years suspended sentence.

I objected to the deceitful way in which my arrest was conducted and called that to be against human dignity and thus refused to sign the order. I also said that the verdict should have been handed down to my lawyers or taken by their officers to my home, but I was body-searched and very hurriedly taken outside the court, where they put me into a car and drove away furiously.

After a few hours I found out I was being taken to the Sanandaj Central Prison. This way, they didn’t allow me to say goodbye to my dearly-beloved wife and children, and didn’t even let me to take my medications with me. You are undoubtedly aware that one of my kidneys has stopped working and the other kidney is almost failing and without these medications and continuous treatment my life would be at risk. What does this mean for humanitarian tradition?

They have sentenced me only because of my efforts to celebrate my international day and that of my fellow workers but they don’t dare to summon me in a conventional way. They kidnap me to be shielded from the outrage of workers and freedom loving people.

Indeed, my arrest three weeks before the first of May 2007 is a political act and not a judicial one. They arrested me within such a particular context so that the organizing of independent May Day events would encounter problems and the workers’ struggles in Iran for the formation of independent organizations from the state would weaken. However, they are ignorant of the fact that I belong to the workers’ social movement. They are ignorant that I and other labour activists and militant people work collectively.

This way our movement can always replace the missing members. It’s even probable that under these circumstances the activists of labour movement would increase their actions quantitatively and qualitatively and thus celebrate a much greater international workers’ day. It’s possible that the struggle for the formation of independent workers’ organizations would redouble.

I felt it necessary to send you this letter and personally inform you of these events. From the day that my colleagues and I were arrested on May first 2004 till now there have been many efforts, struggles and protests inside Iran and abroad to push back the Judicial Power of Iran.

In the beginning, they associated us with the Kurdistan Organization of the Communist Party of Iran (Komalah) and added endangering the “National Security” to our cases. Extensive efforts of workers’ organizations and foundations in Iran and the world forced the judicial authorities to desist resorting to such fabrications of charges.

In other words, the widespread struggles in the country and abroad made them to back down greatly. Yet, this struggle needs to be continued until we are fully acquitted and the right to organize independent celebrations of the international workers’ day is established in Iran. I have no doubt that you would continue to play a valuable and laudable role at this stage as well.

Yours truly,

Mahmoud Salehi

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