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RFL/RE – Iranian lawyer Erfan Karamveisi says he and his client, Jafar Ebrahimi, a teacher and union activist, have been summoned to Tehran’s Evin Prosecutor’s Office.
“I’m required to appear within five days to address allegations of propaganda activity and spreading lies,” Karamveisi said in a post on social media on November 9.
Karamveisi noted that Ebrahimi, the spokesman of the Iranian Teachers’ Union’s Coordination Council, who has been serving a prison sentence since early last year, has been summoned as an informant in the case.
He gave no further details. Ebrahimi was temporarily released from Qezelhesar prison on October 31 for medical treatment.
The summonses come amid heightened pressure from the Islamic republic’s judiciary on independent lawyers handling the cases of civil and union activists, particularly since the start of the “Women, life, freedom” protests in Iran in September 2022.
A report by a coalition of Iranian human rights activists in early June this year stated that since the nationwide protests began, at least 129 lawyers in Iran have faced judicial harassment.
Meanwhile, a wave of repression against educators has seen numerous teachers arrested, summoned for questioning, and imprisoned for their involvement in union activities and protests over the past year in support of the Women, Life, Freedom movement, which was triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in custody for an alleged hijab infraction.
Unrest — including several protests by teachers — has rattled Iran in response to declining living standards, wage arrears, and a lack of welfare support. Labor law in Iran does not recognize the right of workers to form independent unions.
Amini’s death added impetus to the protests, which officials across the country have tried to quell with harsh — and sometimes deadly — measures.
