Ei-iE

Three teachers who joined a committee in support of Farzad Kamangar have been imprisoned, and several other trade unionists who have been calling for re-examination of his case are now receiving threats and phone calls from the Ministry of Intelligence, which does not hesitate to call family members of activists to frighten them.

Farzad Kamangar is the 33-year-old teacher trade unionist who faces the death penalty after a trial that lasted less than 10 minutes and met neither international nor Iranian standards of fairness. His attorney, Khalil Bahramian, says he will appeal the case to the International Court of Justice at The Hague if necessary.

Bahramian and other human rights activists, including Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, established a committee to campaign for the death sentence against Kamangar to be rescinded. However, three teachers who attended the first committee meeting were arrested on their way home and still remain in detention. Bahramian himself was summoned to the administrative court last week, and others of Kamangar’s supporters were also told to meet intelligence forces on 9 August. None has received a written summons so far.

In another disturbing development, teachers who were trying to organise for World Teacher's Day were forced to stop immediately and were threatened with arrest. Their only misconduct was to discuss plans for the 5th of October, unpaid pensions, and the bigger class sizes and longer working hours to come in the next school year starting in September.

EI deplores the fact that the freedom of expression and human rights activism is clearly violated in Iran. EI will monitor closely the developments impacting teachers in Iran and remains in solidarity.