CUPW demands immediate release of children's rights activist Saeed Shirzad and all political prisoners in Iran

Sayyid Ali Khamenei
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran

On behalf of 52,000 members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), I am writing to demand the immediate and unconditional release of Saeed Shirzad, a children rights activist who was arrested at his workplace and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Saeed Shirzad has been charged with "taking part in human rights activities and collaborating with Ahmed Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran". He was first arrested in August 2012, when he went to the city of Ahar (East Azerbaijan-Iran) to help the survivors of an earthquake. He was released on bail after 19 days. Saeed Shirzad was working as a volunteer in several NGOs in Iran including Association in Support of Children’s Rights, Children’s Home of Shoush and Society in Defence of Street Children.

It is not the first time that CUPW writes a letter to protest the imprisonment of activists and workers in Iran. But we have seen an increase in the number of people imprisoned these last months. Another case is the one of Jafar Azimzadeh who has just been sentenced to six years in prison because he has defended workers’ rights and has supported their struggle for a better life and better wages. Currently many workers activists such as Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, Aram  and Foad  Zandi, Rasoul Bodaghi, Ismail Abdi, Alireza Hashemi, Abdolreza Ghanbari, Mahmoud Beheshti, Ali Akbar Baghani alongside many other political activists are in prison due to defending labour and human rights.

These activists are standing up to represent and defend the people of the Iranian country. They are the voices of the children, the women, the poor and all the workers of Iran. You have to listen to them. It is why CUPW is joining his voice to the thousands around the world calling for the immediate release of Saeed Shirzad and all political prisoners in Iran. We demand their immediate and unconditional release.

Sincerely,