TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran sentenced two labor activists in the country’s south to five-year prison term each for taking part in a January protest over several months of owed back pay, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported Tuesday.
A third worker from the same region was also given a five-year sentence for supporting a workers’ strike last year. ILNAdid not say when the sentences were handed down.
The two activists arrested in January — Esmail Bakhshi and Mohammad Khanifar — are sugar mill workers. They were detained following a protest by workers of the Haft Tapeh mill in southern Khuzestan province.
Another labor activist from Khuzestan, Sepideh Gholian, was arrested during a demonstration there in support of a workers’ strike in October 2018. She was released in October this year on about $130,000 bail.
Before his arrest, Bakhshi wrote on his Instagram page that he was beaten and tortured while in temporary detention. He was released on about $70,000 bail in October. There was no information on whether Khanifar had also been released on bail.
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The three activists whose sentencing ILNA reported on were not connected to last month’s demonstrations across Iran over the spike in gasoline prices and the security-force crackdown that followed. Amnesty International said Monday that at least 304 people were killed in those anti-government protests.