The Coordinating Council of Trade Union Organizations of Iranian Cultivators expressed deep concern on Wednesday, January 24, relating to the deteriorating bodily well being of Hashem Khastar, an activist throughout the lecturers’ commerce union who’s at the moment held in Mashhad jail. The Council urgently referred to as for Khastar to be granted medical depart, permitting him to obtain therapy outdoors the confines of the jail.
Expressing apprehension, the council acknowledged, “Despite Hashem Khastar enduring nearly all of his retirement inside detention facilities, courts, and prisons, latest experiences reveal that this esteemed instructor is in a important bodily situation and severely unwell.”
Hashem Khastar, a signatory of a letter calling for the resignation of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has been incarcerated in Mashhad’s Vakil Abad jail for the previous 4 years.
Khastar, a distinguished instructor union activist, was arrested on July 23, 2019, and subsequently sentenced to sixteen years in jail. His sentence included two years of exile to Nikshahr metropolis in Sistan and Baluchistan province, together with a two-year ban on leaving the nation.
Despite his superior age of 70, Hashem Khastar has been serving his sentence with out the due observance of the precept of separation of crimes. In June 2023, he confronted an extra sentence of two years and 6 months in jail in a separate case. Notably, on September 26, 2023, he underwent one other trial at Mashhad Criminal Court on costs of ‘spreading lies and disturbing the general public thoughts.’
In his newest correspondence detailing his trial held on November 15, 2023, Khastar lamented, “The court docket was convened abruptly, on-line, with out prior discover, and with out authorized illustration. The decide of Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court cited passages from one among my defenses, deeming it an insult to the management. Upon seeing my face, the decide referred to me as ‘Old man’ with out mentioning his household identify and whereas I used to be not seeing his image. I retorted, highlighting the suppression of free speech and the stifling of dissent contributing to the dire state of the nation.