Iran: Urgent medical treatment required for jailed trade unionist

Prisoner of conscience Mansour Ossanlu, leader of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed), was arrested on 10 July 2007. He was previously detained for eight months, from December 2005 to August 2006, and again for a month from November to December 2006 in connection with his trade union activities. He had reportedly been sentenced to five years' imprisonment in May 2007, but was believed to be free on bail at the time of his arrest.

When a delegation of visiting Indonesian trade unionists, and later his wife, tried to visit Mansour Ossanlu at Evin prison on 9 October, the prison authorities claimed that he had been taken to hospital for urgent medical treatment for injuries he had sustained at the hands of the security forces in May 2005. His wife was eventually able to see him on 15 October, when he told her he had received no medical treatment at all.

Update: 21 October 2007 - Good news

Mansour Ossanlu has this weekend been admitted to hospital for eye surgery and is recovering well.

Thank you to the many thousands of Amnesty activists and trade unionists who supported our urgent appeal. We still want him and fellow union leader Mahmoud Salehi to be released from Jail. Find out more and take action

Independent trade unions are not permitted in Iran, and discriminatory legislation means that certain categories of people are not permitted to stand for election as workers’ representatives of government-recognised unions; government supervisory bodies select who can stand for union posts, and all public sector jobs. Trades unions in Iran are represented by a body known as Workers House, whose leaders are also subject to selection criteria imposed by the state, weakening its ability to effectively represent workers' concerns. The Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, which resumed activities in 2004 after a 25-year ban, is still not legally recognised.

Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 22 (1) of which states: "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests." Article 26 of Iran’s Constitution states: "The formation of parties, societies, political or professional associations…is permitted provided they do not violate the principles of independence, freedom, national unity, the criteria of Islam, or the basis of the Islamic republic. No one may be prevented from participating in the aforementioned groups, or be compelled to participate in them." Similar guarantees are provided under International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions.

On 16 October, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) labour organisation released a film entitled Freedom Will Come - the Story of Mansour Osanloo, intended for global distribution in order to galvanise the campaign to free Mansour Ossanlu and his colleague Ebrahim Madadi, and to protect the right of Iranian workers to join trade unions.  During International Road Transport Action Week 2007, from 15 October 2007, the ITF is calling on its member unions, and in particular bus drivers, to wear badges calling for Mansour Ossanlu to be released.

• Find out more about our work for trade unionist in Iran
• Watch Freedom Will Come - the Story of Mansour Osanloo on YouTube

Prisoner of conscience Mansour Ossanlu, leader of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed), was arrested on 10 July 2007. He was previously detained for eight months, from December 2005 to August 2006, and again for a month from November to December 2006 in connection with his trade union activities. He had reportedly been sentenced to five years' imprisonment in May 2007, but was believed to be free on bail at the time of his arrest.

When a delegation of visiting Indonesian trade unionists, and later his wife, tried to visit Mansour Ossanlu at Evin prison on 9 October, the prison authorities claimed that he had been taken to hospital for urgent medical treatment for injuries he had sustained at the hands of the security forces in May 2005. His wife was eventually able to see him on 15 October, when he told her he had received no medical treatment at all.

Update: 21 October 2007 - Good news

Mansour Ossanlu has this weekend been admitted to hospital for eye surgery and is recovering well.

Thank you to the many thousands of Amnesty activists and trade unionists who supported our urgent appeal. We still want him and fellow union leader Mahmoud Salehi to be released from Jail. Find out more and take action

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