Arrested teachers pressurised to accept bogus charges of having acted against national security!

As reports begin to emerge of the harassment, intimidation, and interrogation of four teacher activists recently detained [last week] by the regime, their defence counsel has disclosed that the prosecution of his clients will go ahead – including on the false charge of “Collaborating with forces opposed to the Islamic Republic.”

The Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations (CCITTA) announced in a report, on Monday 9 May, that Rasoul Badaghi, Jafar Ebrahimi, Mohammad Habibi, and Ali Akbar Baghani – all arrested in recent days – have undergone lengthy and severe interrogation [by the Islamic Republic security forces] designed to coerce confessions to offences that go way beyond the usual charges for trade union activism.

According to the same report, despite the pressure they are under, the four trade unionists have so far strongly defended their activism as being firmly grounded in the trade union movement and have unequivocally rejected the wider and more serious false charges tabled against them.

The report then goes on to state, “The perpetrators of this dirty method should know that [it] has become obsolete and such practices have never been accepted by the Iranian people, especially those in the teaching profession.

“Iranian teachers, in a rally [due to take place] on Thursday 12 May, will once more demonstrate their wholehearted and resolute solidarity with their detained fellow teachers and will deliver their true/righteous verdict on the cases of their detained colleagues. 

“These charges are totally baseless and will not stick to our honourable colleagues!”