Mansour Osanloo’s Prison Furlough Extended to One Month

Mansour Osanloo

Mansour Osanloo, President of the Syndicate of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed), who was released on a four-day prison furlough on Thursday, 2 June, has been given an extension for a month, according to his wife, and he is now at home with his family. Parvaneh Osanloo, wife of the labor activist and prisoner of conscience, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, “[Prison] authorities told us verbally that Mr. Osanloo has  one month of furlough. Now we’re also trying to get a written letter of this furlough so we’d be at ease.”

Osanloo’s family was told last week that he would be released on bail, but after raising the bail amount, prison authorities told the family that he was only going on a four-day furlough and after the holidays he must return to prison. Osanloo has been suffering from heart disease while in prison.

Expressing joy that her husband is at home now, Parvaneh Osanloo said, “Mr. Osanloo has been under the right diet in past few days and the family is trying to improve his mood.”

“We were contacted by prison officials on Wednesday morning to go and post bail for Mansour’s release. Since morning that day, we went after posting bail for him and we waited for him to come until 11:30 at night, when they said it couldn’t be done and to come back the next day. Again, we were looking for a custodian for him the next day, until they contacted us at night and said he was free and to go pick him up. When we got there, they said he was only coming on furlough, and that he must return to prison after the holidays again,” Mansour Osanloo’s sister told the Campaign.

Mansour Osanloo was arrested by security forces near his home on 10 July, 2007 and was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “acting against national security,” and “propagating against the regime. With just a few months left to until the completion of his sentence, Osanloo’s doctors have repeatedly diagnosed him as incapable of serving the remainder of his prison term due to heart disease. He has been hospitalized several times as a result of three clogged arteries.