Workers sentenced to lashes for participating in demonstration

Four workers and labor activists from the Iranian province of Kurdistan have been lashed by authorities for disrupting public order and participating in an unauthorized gathering, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported Wednesday. An additional seven have been sentenced.

According to the article, the detainees were sentenced to ten lashes and 91 days in prison for the taking part in a demonstration on May 1 to complain about their wages and other issues.

Khaled Savari, the head of the National Union of Dismissed and Unemployed workers, is one of those sentenced to ten lashes. “What crime have we committed?” he asked. “Have we broken any doors or windows? Have we set a car on fire? The only thing we did was to complain about our wages and other workers’ issues in front of the employment office.”

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