Amnesty International has sent a letter to Iranian president Hassan Rouhani to express concern about the well-being of two Iranian activists arrested nine days ago in Iran.
Esmail Bakhshi who is a labor leader from the Haft Tapeh sugar mill and Sepideh Qolian a civil activist were arrested on January 20 after they complained of being tortured during an earlier arrest in late 2018.
In an announcement Amnesty said, “The authorities must release them
immediately and unconditionally as they are prisoners of conscious jailed solely on the basis of their peaceful activism in defense of workers’ rights”.
In the letter to Rouhani, the international human rights group says, "They were violently rearrested by ministry of intelligence officials in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, on 20 January,as apparent reprisal for speaking out about the torture they said they suffered during their detention...They have since been held, without access to their lawyers, in a ministry of intelligence detention center in Ahvaz and are at risk of torture and other ill treatment".
Amnesty International asks Rouhani for the "immediate and unconditional" release of the activists, their safe treatment pending the release and thorough investigation of their previous torture accusations.