Mine Workers Flogged over Protests

Silently, in accordance with the verdict against them, 17 workers from Iran's Agh Darreh Gold Mine appeared in a court in West Azarbaijan to be flogged. Iranian media kept silent on the matter, as did the men’s families. 

But on May 26, after the floggings, their lawyer, Vahid Yary, spoke about their cases to Iran’s Labor News Agency (ILNA).

“There were two separate cases against them,” he said. “For each case, they were sentenced to prison, a cash fine, and flogging. With the forgiveness of the plaintiff and an amnesty by the judicial authority, prison sentences were removed for all the workers, but the punishment of a cash fine and flogging for each defendant was carried out.”

Even though publicity came late, many Iranians have reacted angrily to news of the flogging.

In December 2014, the Agh Darreh workers staged a rally to protest their employer’s refusal to renew the contracts of 350 miners. The laid-off miners had worked at the Agh Darreh mine for between one and seven years.

They held their rally outside the mine’s guard house and ended up clashing with guards.

On December 27, three of the laid-off workers attempted suicide in front of their coworkers. Their colleagues rushed them to the hospital and saved their lives.

Their employer went to court and filed a complaint against 17 of the workers for creating unrest. Authorities charged them with “preventing people from doing business by disturbing the peace,” “insulting the company’s guard,” “destruction of a guard’s uniform and illegally detaining him” and “willful destruction of the company’s sign.”

The court found them guilty. They appealed, but the appeals court sentenced them to between 30 and 100 lashes each, and between six months and three years in prison. The court also sentenced some of them to a cash fine of 500, 000 tomans, or around $165. Prison sentences were dropped at the plaintiff's request.

Workers Flogged Before

This was not the first time Iranian courts sentenced workers to physical punishment and fines over labor protests.

Last year, authorities sentenced five workers at Chadormalu Iron Ore Mine in Yazd province to one year in prison and flogging for “disturbing public peace and order.” According to ILNA, their employer had accused them of leading a strike. An appeals court later changed the verdict to a cash fine of around $100 and a suspended prison sentence of five years for each.

In 2014, four workers at Razi Petrochemicals were sentenced to six months in prison and 50 lashes following a complaint from their employer. Their employer claimed that in February 2014, these workers had incited their coworkers to strike, had insulted and threatened company officials and that their protests had resulted in business losses. The appeals court gave each worker a two-year suspended sentence.

According to Radio Farda, the Persian service of US-backed Radio Liberty, Iranian workers were also flogged in 2007 and 2008.

On May 1, 2007, authorities in Sanandaj arrested 13 members of Iran's Kurdish minority for participating in rallies for International Labor Day. They spent 50 days in jail, and courts sentenced some of them to prison and flogging.

A year later, two women labor activists were arrested for the same reason on the same day. Susan Razani received 70 lashes at Sanandaj’s Central Prison, and Shiva Kheirabadi received 15. Labor activists protested against these sentences, and many of them greeted the two women enthusiastically after they had been flogged.

But because of the silence of Iranian media, no members of the public greeted the Agh Darreh miners.