Mojtaba Tavakol: Pardoned but Barred from Working

Mojtaba Tavakol, a worker, was arrested in the summer of 2022 by security forces in Tehran. He was born in 1983 and for 17 years, from 2005 until his arrest, worked for Abu Raihan Pharmaceutical Company in Tehran’s neighborhood of Tehran Pars, working with hazardous materials.

However, after working in a dangerous job, when he protested the company’s working conditions, he was arrested and charged with “propaganda against the regime” and “insulting the Supreme Leader” and then sentenced to a year in prison. Tavakol was sent to Evin Prison on August 2, 2022.

In February 2023, in an attempt to whitewash thousands of illegal arrest, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei agreed with a request by the head of the judiciary to grant a “great amnesty” to tens of thousands of prisoners. Mojtaba Tavakol was one of those pardoned under the terms of this amnesty and was released on February 13. But this was the start of another ordeal for him: he still does not know whether he has a job or not.

According to an informed source who spoke with IranWire, “For 500 days before being employed by Abu Raihan Pharmaceutical, Tavakol worked as a freelancer for this company and, in December 2006, the company hired him as a fulltime worker. He and other employees are meant to retire after 20 years because they work with hormones and chemicals that can be hazardous. Tavakol was close to four years away from retirement when he was arrested in August 2022.

“For six years, since 2010, Mojtaba was the supervisor of the suppository production unit of the company but was immediately removed from his position as the supervisor when he defended the rights of workers and their demands for wage increase and job advancement. Afterwards, Mojtaba who was a night shift worker, was repeatedly threatened by the members of the paramilitary Basij in the factory.”

According to this source, the threats started from 2016, after Tavakol was transferred to the factory’s syringe production unit: “Mojtaba was assigned to the job of the operator for making syringes. In recent years, he was repeatedly threatened by the Basijis. In the two years before his arrest, they secretly recorded his statements in the factory to use against him and the only reason was that Mojtaba protested against inhumane conditions of the workers in the factory.

“At that time, the CEO of Abu Raihan factory was an engineer by the name of Meysam Nour-Mohammadi, the same person who, early after the coronavirus epidemic had started, claimed that he can make a pill to control coronavirus. Even the 830pm news program of the state TV gave this claim extensive coverage.

“Nour-Mohammadi, whose father is a member of the Revolutionary Guards, and his Basiji agents who work at the factory played the main role in the story of Mojtaba’s arrest. We have no hard evidence to prove this claim but the eavesdropping and the recording of his voice must have been done on the order of a higher-up.

“In late May 2022, a summons was posted on SANA [the online electronic system of the Iranian judiciary] but he was unaware that he had been summoned until, in August, the Intelligence Ministry called him on his phone and summoned him for questioning to Evin prosecutor’s office. He answered the summons and, during the interrogations, the Intelligence Ministry took over his social media accounts where he had been very active.

“Mojtaba went where he was told to go, voluntarily. The interrogators had received information about him from inside the factory. When they asked him about his activities, he told them nothing but the truth. On his social media accounts, he did not use his real name but earlier the security agents had learned about one of his account.”

When Tavakol was summoned, he was taking care of his parents who had been infected with coronavirus. He was interrogated for five hours at Branch 6 of Evin’s courthouse. He was released on bail but was warned not to talk to the media. According to our source, “Mojtaba was under surveillance at his workplace, the Abu Raihan Pharmaceutical Co. Perhaps that is why his employer did not insist to learn why he had been summoned.”

When he was tried, Tavakol was sentenced to one year in prison for “propaganda against the regime” and “insulting the Supreme Leader”: “On August 2, 2022, Mojtaba Tavakol started serving his sentence but was released on February 13, 2023, according to the amnesty issued by the Supreme Leader. However, when he went to the pharmaceutical company to resume his work, he was not allowed to. Day after day, they made promises but did nothing, so he staged a sit-in outside the premises of the company. They told him that they would solve his problems it he stopped his sit-in but, as of now, they have only given him the runaround.”

On October 15, 2022, while Tavakol was still in prison, Ward 7 of the notorious Evin Prison that houses political prisoners was engulfed by fire and, according to IranWire sources, at least 13 people died. The judiciary claimed that the fire was caused by a "riot" but indications are strong that this claim was part of a coverup and the fire was not started by the inmates.

This source says Tavakol had posted a file online that revealed facts about the events of that night and “he believes that, because of those revelations, security officials are preventing him from returning to work. But he says that he is not going to give up and will continue to fight, even if they kill him because he demands his rights.”

The source asks why, if as they claim Tavakol has been “pardoned,” he cannot get his job back: “Mojtaba says: ‘We are ready to give our lives for Iran and I would never leave Iran. My imprisonment is over and I have been pardoned. Perhaps they would want to summon me again in the future but, for now, there is no notice on the SANA system. Perhaps they want to frame me again. I have no idea what their plans are.’”

“Mojtaba tried for a year to stay out of prison and not lose his job,” says the source. “He appealed to judiciary officials to release him with an electronic ankle monitor so he wouldn’t lose his job. But they just ignored him. And now, at Abu Raihan Pharmaceuticals, they just give him the runaround.”

Mojtaba Tavakol is his family’s breadwinner and pays the rent. When he called his mother from prison, he pretended that he was traveling on a work assignment. He no longer had an income and could not deposit any money into the family’s bank account. His elderly parents were waiting for their son to return with money, unaware that he was behind bars.

“Everybody should know that Mojtaba did not protest for his personal interests and his own salary,” says this source. “He protested against the corrupt Islamic Republic regime. He had a very good job and a very good salary but he could not close his eyes to the truth. The most important message that he has sent to the people is this: national interests have priority over personal interests.”