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6 June, 2011
Mansour Osanloo, the leader and co-founder of Vahed Syndicate, a union of bus drivers in and around Tehran, Iran, was released from an Iranian jail on 2 June after four years imprisonment. But his freedom came conditionally. He needed to post payment of a bond and release was granted on grounds that he maintain “good behaviour.”
His only offence against the state was to form a free and democratic union of bus drivers in 2005.
In a statement by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), which has been fighting for his freedom and full recognition of his union, General Secretary David Cockroft said, “He is free because trade unions worldwide demanded justice.
“That bail has been set falls short of the full pardon we all wanted, and which the Iranian government promised, but for now we can just take a moment to savour his richly deserved return to his family.” (See the full ITF statement here.)
The ITF reminded that two of Osanloo’s colleagues of the Vahed Syndicate, Reza Shahabi and Ebrahim Madadi, are innocent victims still locked inside Iran’s prisons.
Vahed Syndicate and Osanloo, 51, had been under heavy state repression since the founding of the union six years ago. Osanloo had been jailed twice between 2005-2006 and was beaten and had his tongue slit while in prison. Then in early summer 2007, just a month after he had been at a meeting of the ITF in London and another with trade union leaders of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in Brussels, he was jailed again and sentenced to five years for “acting against national security” and “propaganda against the state.” Last year, another year was added to his sentence.
Osanloo is suffering from poor health from the harsh treatment inflicted on him in Iran’s prisons. A previous ICEM report on his treatment can be found here, while another ICEM report of his 2007 arrest following his European trade union visit can be found here.