His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi

Head of the Judiciary

Ministry of Justice

Ministry of Justice Building

Panzdah-Khordad Square

Tehran

Iran

Your Excellency

Mansour Ossanlu, a bus driver, trade union activist and human rights defender, is serving a five-year prison sentence in Iran. I believe that he is a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of association.

Mansour Ossanlu is head of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, which is affiliated to the International Transport Workers’ Federation. Prior to his detention he was working to defend the rights of workers in Iran. He has previously been detained twice, for a total of nine months, for trade union activities. He was tried in February 2007 and later sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for “acts against national security.” He travelled abroad while awaiting the appeal and was arrested again on 10 July 2007, when he returned from meetings with international trade union colleagues in Europe. On 30 October 2007 an appeal court in Tehran upheld the five-year prison term. It appears, however, that the trial verdict was never officially issued, contrary to Iranian law. Without a written verdict, his lawyers cannot challenge the court’s decision.

I am concerned that Mansour Ossanlu is suffering from ill health and is not receiving much-needed medical treatment. According to his wife Parvaneh Ossanlu, he has not been allowed to meet with his lawyers since being moved to a prison in Karaj, west of Tehran, on 31 August 2008.

I urge that Mansour Ossanlu be given immediate medical attention. Furthermore, I call for his immediate and unconditional release and for all charges against him relating to trade union activities to be dropped.

Yours sincerely,

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