The Revolutionary Court of Rasht has sentenced ten teacher union activists to two years in prison each, along with additional penalties, as reported by the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association channel.
The convicted teachers are Anoosh Adeli, Mahmood Sedighipour, Aziz Ghasemzadeh, Teymoor Bagheri Koodakani, Tahmasb Sohrabi, Gholamreza Akbarzadeh Baghian, Ali Nahali, Mohammad-Javad Saeedi, Jahanbakhsh Lajevardi, and Yadollah Baharestani. In addition to the prison terms, they have been barred from joining political/civil groups for two years.
The court session addressed charges related to “disturbing public order through participating in and holding protest union gatherings and defying police officers.” Sedighipour and Ghasemzadeh were imprisoned and did not attend the court.
Among them, Adeli, Sedighipour, and Ghasemzadeh had previously received a one-year prison term, which was upheld on appeal. They are currently serving their sentences in Lakan Prison, Rasht.
In 2023, the Department of Statistics of Human Rights Activists in Iran documented 1,700 reports related to the rights of trade unions and associations. This included 53 individuals who received sentences totaling 1,230 months of imprisonment.
