Son of Imprisoned Laborer: My Father Was Prosecuted on Charges of Contacting UN’s Ahmad Shahid

Family members of Behnam Ibrahimzadeh - the labor activist held at Rajaishahr prison in the town of Karaj near Tehran – announced that their prisoner is being retried. In a separate exclusive interview with Rooz, Nima Ibrahimzadeh, the son of Behnam Ibrahimzadeh who is in Rajaishahr prison, told Rooz that his father was tried on a new charge of having contacts with Ahmad Shahid, UN’s special human rights rapporteur on Iran.

Behnam’s father Rahman Ibrahimzadeh who is a member of the coordinating committee for labor unions (Komite Hamahangi Baraye Komak Be Injade Tashaolhaye Kargari) revealed through a letter on the committee’s website that his son had been tried again by judge Ahmadzadeh in the absence of any attorneys representing him at a revolutionary court.

Behnam was arrested in 2010 and initially sentenced to 20 years of prison by branch 15 of the revolutionary court on security charges. Later an appellate court sentenced him to only five years.

Nima, Behnam’s son, told Rooz that last week agents tried to take his father to a trial outside the prison a number of times but were faced with his opposition. Finally, they dragged him to a court after beating him up.

Nima said that the charges against him this time were “disruption of prison peace and contacts with Ahmad Shahid,” adding that the judge has not yet formally announced the sentence.

Mr. Ibrahimzadeh is currently being held in ward no 2 of Rajaishahr prison in Karaj which is for non-political prisoners where he is denied his basic needs. The family desires that Ibrahimzadeh be transferred to a ward where political prisoners are kept. In early December, he went on a hunger strike for a month requesting that he be transferred to a political prisoner ward.

The coordinating committee had announced earlier that Nima was a cancer patient currently undergoing chemo treatment.

Human rights and labor unions across the world have repeatedly criticized Iranian authorities for their security and judiciary attacks and treatment of labor activists in Iran.

Reza Shahai, Shahrokh Zamani, Mohammad Jarahi, Rasool Bodaghi, Behnam Ibrahimzadeh, Pedram Nasrollahi, Vafa Ghaderi, Vahid Seyde, Mohammad Molajai, Yusef Abkhorabat, Khaled Hosseini and Ghaleb Hosseini are among labor activists who have been arrested in recent years and some of them continue to be in prison today.