Prominent Iranian labor activist Esmail Bakhshi is in serious condition behind bars, workers from the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane industrial complex have announced on their Telegram app channel.
Bakhshi has been reportedly suffering from health problems unrelated to his incarceration, but his coworkers say his second arrest in two months is making matters worse and authorities are possibly using detention as a means of putting pressure on him.
He was initially arrested in November 2018 after weeks of strikes and protests at the sugar mill, where he was the spokesman of the workers. After more than three weeks in detention he was released in December.
However, in a letter posted on Instagram on January 4, Bakhshi, alleged that he was tortured and beaten by Intelligence Ministry interrogators while in custody in November 2018.
The minister denied the allegations but never responded to the challenge.
Bakhshi was later re-arrested for insisting on his claims.
“During the first few days, without reason or any conversation, they tortured me and beat me with their fists and kicked me until I was going to die. They beat me so hard that I couldn’t move in my cell for 72 hours. I was feeling so much pain that I couldn’t even sleep without suffering,” Bakhshi wrote about his detention experience last year.