One month after his arrest, labor activist Maziar Seyednejad is still in a state of limbo.
The labor activist was arrested on June 7, at his home in Tehran and was transferred to a solitary confinement cell in ward 209 of Evin Prison which is under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence.
In a brief phone call with his family which was controlled by security forces, Seyednejad said that he was unaware of the reasons for his detention.
The authorities have not provided Seyednejad’s family with information about his legal status, or the reason for the arrest.
Maziar Seyednejad was first arrested by security forces in Ahvaz on December 1, 2018, and was transferred to Sheiban Prison after interrogation. He was finally released on a temporary bail on March 187, 2019, until the end of the trial.
Iranian state-TV has aired a “documentary,” in which several activists including Seyednejad said they were forced to confess to being part of an international Marxist cabal.
Aired on prime time Iranian national TV January 19, 2019, the program attempted to connect the workers’ strikes and protest rallies at the Haft Tapeh Sugarcane plant in southwest Iran to a Marxist party, as well as to the United States and Israel.
Seyednejad was sentenced by Branch 4 of the Revolutionary Court of Ahvaz to three years in prison on charges of ‘membership in a dissident group.’ In June 2021, Branch 16 of the Khuzestan Court of Appeals upheld the verdict.
