In the past ten days, six worker activists have been arrested in the city of Sanandaj in the west of Iran, according to reports by the Free Union of Iranian Workers. The six jailed workers are:

• Vafa Ghaderi
• Seyed Khaled Hosseini
• Ali Azadi
• Behzad Farajollahi
• Hamed Mahmoud Nejad
• Sharif Saed Panah

The first five activists are all from the Co-ordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organisations, and were arrested on 7 March. Sharif Saed Panah is an executive member of the Free Union of Iranian Workers and an organiser of the 30,000-signature pay-rise campaign. He was arrested on 10 March. The activists are being held purely for their union activities.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, for the eighth day running, families of the jailed workers staged a protest outside the Intelligence Ministry, calling for the immediate release of their loved ones. They then marched towards the Provincial Governor’s office to continue their protests there. The families have vowed to continue their protests until all the jailed workers are released.

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Free Them Now! calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the jailed workers and all political prisoners in Iran.
18 March 2013

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Free Them Now! Campaign to Free Jailed Workers in Iran
Shahla Daneshfar (shahla_daneshfar@yahoo.com)
Bahram Soroush (bahram.soroush@gmail.com)
http://free-them-now.blogspot.co.uk