Free Soheil Arabi and Farangis Mazloum!
News has reached the international workers community that Iranian trade unionist, Soheil Arabi, an anarcho-syndicalist prisoner, began a hunger strike in the infamous Evin prison north of Tehran on Friday September 20th. Soheil is protesting against the arrest of his mother, Farangis Mazloum, who was placed in solitary confinement by the Iranian government.
Soheil Arabi, a photography graduate and father of a young girl, was arrested by Revolutionary Guards Intelligence in the winter of 2013, and was subjected to torture in solitary confinement. He was sentenced to death for insulting the Prophet Mohammad in his postings on Facebook.This was commuted in 2015 to several years imprisonment and two years of mandatory study of Islamic theology. It was the first time that such a sentence for these charges has been commuted.
In August 2017 Soheil went on strike to protest Revolutionary Guard harassment of his wife and relatives. He again went on strike to protest the beating of civil rights activists in January 2018. He was severely beaten by Revolutionary Guards to make him give up the hunger strike. In April 2019 he was beaten again when he intervened to stop common law prisoners being beaten and had to have surgery. He went on a third hunger strike in June and his condition deteriorated so much that he was transferred to a dispensary. Now he is on his fourth hunger strike.
We demand the immediate release of Soheil from prison and that of his mother into the arms of their family and loved ones.
The Iranian state must bring to an immediate end its policy of indefinite internment of trade union and political activists.
Free Soheil Arabi now!
Demo at Iranian Embassy, 12-2pm October 2nd, at 16 Princes Gate. London. SW7 1PT. (nearest tube South Kensington)