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TUC protests at arrest of Iranian trade union leader

Issue date

His Excellency Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
President of the Republic
The Presidency
Palestine Avenue
Azerbaijan Intersection
Tehran
Islamic Republic of Iran

Dear President Ahmadinejad

Mansour Osanloo

I am writing on behalf of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, which represents some 6.4 million trade unionists in Britain, to express our profound concern at the reported abduction on 19 November of Mr Mansour Osanloo, President of the Syndicate of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company. We understand that Mr Osanloo was taken by force and without an arrest warrant in Farjam Street, Tehran East by unidentified, armed plain-clothes agents. It has been reported that when he demanded to know the reason for his arrest, the agents fired into the air. We believe that his family and colleagues have no knowledge of his whereabouts.

Our information is that Mr Osanloo was due to appear in court on 20 January, with several other members of his union, to answer charges in connection with the bus workers' industrial action in December 2005. The abduction appears to be part of a pattern of sustained harrassment and assaults to which Mr Osanloo and his trade union colleagues have been subjected since their strike, and in his particular case, since he was released on bail after eight months in Evin prison.

At the present time, the International Labour Organisation's Committee on Freedom of Association I (in case No. 2508) is examining the repression of Sherkat-e Verhad. Iran has still not ratified the ILO freedom of association Conventions 87 and 98. Nonetheless Iran is bound, simply by the fact of its membership of the ILO, to uphold, promote and respect in good faith the principles of freedom of association. Paramount among those principles is the right of all workers, without distinction whatsoever and without prior authorisation by government, to join and establish organisations of their own choosing for the defence of their interests.

The TUC General Council therefore urges the government and public authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran to determine immediately where Mr Osanloo is being held, protect him against assault by his captors, and ensure his release and safe return to his family forthwith. There should be an independent enquiry into the circumstances of his abduction, the results of which should be made public, and those responsible for ordering and carrying out his abduction should be brought to justice.

I should be most grateful to receive from you, by return, information about Mr Osanloo's whereabouts and condition and hope to hear of his immediate release.

I am copying this letter to the Rt. Hon Margaret Beckett MP, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs; to His Excellency Ambassador Juan Somavia, Director General of the ILO; and to the British Ambassador in Tehran, as well as to the Iranian Embassy in London.

Yours sincerely

Brendan Barber

General Secretary

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