[QODLink]
Middle East
Iran union leader released
The EU had expressed concern over the arrest of Mansour Ossanlou.
Last Modified: 20 Dec 2006 13:56 GMT
Ossanlou was reportedly held at
the Evin prison [EPA]

An Iranian union leader, whose arrest was criticised by the EU, has been released on bail, his lawyer said on Wednesday.
 
Mansour Ossanlou, the president of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, was freed on Tuesday after being re-arrested last month.
 
It was the second time in less than a year that he had been detained.
The EU presidency last week said Ossanlou's arrest appeared to be "without credible justification" and expressed concern about his treatment.
 
He was first detained for about seven months earlier this year after leading a protest by bus drivers seeking improved wages and working conditions.

After the protest, Ossanlou was fired by the bus company along with 1,000 co-workers.

 

He complained several times that his dismissal was illegal and tried to return to his job.

 

Masoud Bastani, an Iranian journalist who has been following the case, told Reuters last week that Ossanlou's bail had been set at $33,000 in addition to the $164,000 he had to pay for his earlier release.

 

The UN expressed "serious concern" on Tuesday over a long list of human rights abuses attributed to Iran and urged Tehran to ensure full respect for those rights.

 

The resolution expressed the assembly's "serious concern" at Tehran's "harassment, intimidation and persecution" of human rights champions, interest groups, political opponents, religious dissenters, journalists, parliamentarians, students, clerics, academics, internet bloggers and labour union members.

Source:
Agencies
Topics in this article
People
Country
City
Organisation
Featured on Al Jazeera
In the frozen peaks of Afghanistan's Kunar province, a ferocious clash for supremacy rages amid the mountaintops.
Indigenous community with "third world conditions" sits 90km from diamond mine, prompting fight for resource royalties.
There is a unique and dangerous commerce system at work in Amazonia, where children risk their lives for a few pennies.
Organisations that influence social, cultural and political issues in the US have been hijacked by the far right.
<  > 
join our mailing list

Enter Zip Code
Go