NCRI – A large number of Bazaar merchants were arrested by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) during the recent strikes in Tehran and other major cities. They have been transferred to ward 209 of Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. Some have been sent to solitary confinements, according to the Resistance sources inside Iran.
The detainees have been subjected to severe physical and psychological tortures and have gone through long periods of over night interrogations. The prisoners are kept in overcrowded cells and are deprived of minimum facilities.
MOIS interrogators have threatened the families of the prisoners with arrest if they leak out the news of their loved ones' imprisonment.
In October, the Bazaar merchants went on strike over unfair regulations and repressive measures in major Iranian cities such as Tehran, Isfahan, Mashhad, Shiraz, Tabriz and Qazvin. The regime gave in to their demands.
The Iranian Resistance calls on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other international human rights organisations to take urgent measures to save the lives of detained Bazaar Merchants.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
October 31, 2008