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Mansour Ossalou, the leader of the Steering Committee of the Trade Union of the Vahed Bus Company of Tehran and Suburbs, was arrested by plain clothes agents on Sunday, 19 November 2006.Mr Ossalou and two other steering committee members were on their way to the office of the Labour Ministry in East Tehran. When Mr Ossalou got out of the car to buy a newspaper he was surrounded by a number of plain clothes agents. After refusing to show any identification or arrest warrants the agents physically and verbally assaulted Mr Ossalou and Ebrahim Madadi, the union's deputy-leader, who he tried to intervene. One of the agents even pointed a gun at Mr Madadi and fired a bullet over his head. The agents finally forced Mr Ossalou into a waiting car and drove away.
Several hours later the authorities told Mr Ossalou's wife that he was in Evin prison: where he had been held - often in solitary confinement - and mistreated from December 2005 until August 2006. He was released after a bail of £83,300 (equivalent to 125 years' wages!) was set.
Since Mr Ossalou's only 'crime' involves reviving the trade union that the regime smashed during the Iran-Iraq war, and posing basic demands like union recognition, signing a collective contract, and better pay and conditions, then he should be released immediately and without any conditions.
Free all labour activists jailed in Iran!
Build the Iranian workers' united front!
Long live international solidarity!Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network
21 November 2006