Three Labor Affairs Reporters Remain Detained Three Months After Arrests

Three staff members of Gam news, an independent Persian-language news channel on the Telegram messaging app, remain in detention three months after being arrested in connection with the channel’s coverage of workers’ rights protests in the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan. 

Correspondent Ali (Amir) Amirgholi, who was arrested on January 16, 2019, remains in detention in Ahvaz Central Prison, in the province’s capital.

His father, Abbas Amirgholi, said the authorities have not informed him of the charges his son is facing.

“On March 27 [2019] we visited him in prison,” Abbas Amirgholi told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on April 8. “Thanks to God, the prison authorities had given him his diabetes medicine. Now we’re hoping that his case will be quickly transferred to Tehran.” 

Amir Amirgholi was previously imprisoned for two and a half years after being convicted of “insulting the sacred,” “insulting the supreme leader,” “assembly and collusion against national security,” “disturbing public order” and “propaganda against the state” for his peaceful activities. He was released in May 2017.

Two other Gam staff members, Editor-in-Chief Amirhossein Mohammadifard and his colleague and wife Sanaz Allahyari, have been in Evin Prison since their arrest by Intelligence Ministry agents on January 9, 2019. 

Judicial authorities had promised the families that the detainees would be released on bail until their trials begin but the authorities have not followed up on this promise, a source with knowledge about their cases told CHRI on condition of anonymity. 

Asal Mohammadi, a fourth Gam staff member, was released on bail on January 5, 2019. She was imprisoned for her reporting on steel workers in Ahvaz and sugar mill workers in Shush.

No date has been announced for her trial.