The Coordinating Council of Trade Union Organizations of Iranian Cultivators voiced deep concern on Wednesday, January 24, over the deteriorating physical health of Hashem Khastar, an activist within the teachers’ trade union currently held in Mashhad prison. The Council urgently called for Khastar to be granted medical leave, allowing him to receive treatment outside the confines of the prison.
Expressing apprehension, the council stated, “Despite Hashem Khastar enduring the majority of his retirement within detention centers, courts, and prisons, recent reports reveal that this esteemed teacher is in a critical physical condition and seriously unwell.”
Emphasizing the imperative release and medical leave for the imprisoned teacher, the organization urged the regime authorities to promptly facilitate the necessary conditions for Mr. Khastar to pursue medical treatment outside the prison walls.
Hashem Khastar, a signatory of a letter calling for the resignation of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has been incarcerated in Mashhad’s Vakil Abad prison for the past four years.
Khastar, a prominent teacher union activist, was arrested on July 23, 2019, and subsequently sentenced to sixteen years in prison. His sentence included two years of exile to Nikshahr city in Sistan and Baluchistan province, along with a two-year ban on leaving the country.
Despite his advanced age of 70, Hashem Khastar has been serving his sentence without the due observance of the principle of separation of crimes. In June 2023, he faced an additional sentence of two years and six months in prison in a separate case. Notably, on September 26, 2023, he underwent another trial at Mashhad Criminal Court on charges of ‘spreading lies and disturbing the public mind.’
In his latest correspondence detailing his trial held on November 15, 2023, Khastar lamented, “The court was convened abruptly, online, without prior notice, and without legal representation. The judge of Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court cited passages from one of my defenses, deeming it an insult to the leadership. Upon seeing my face, the judge referred to me as ‘Old man’ without mentioning his family name and while I was not seeing his picture. I retorted, highlighting the suppression of free speech and the stifling of dissent contributing to the dire state of the nation.”
