Araz News:  The funeral and burial of Shahrokh Zamani, a labor activist of Azerbaijan  who died in Rajai Shahr Prison on 13th September, was held in the cemetery of Vadi Rahmat in Tabriz, and the video below shows a part of the event.

The funeral and burial of Shahrokh Zamani, a labor activist and painter who died in Rajai Shahr prison on 13th September, was held in the cemetery of Vadi Rahmat in Tabriz, and his body was buried next to his mother’s grave in this cemetery, HRANA’s reported.

It is told that the security forces were present in this event, but the burial was held without a problem.

Also the daughter of this late labor activist, in connection with the death of his father and the autopsy, told: “Yesterday in the city of Karaj and in the office of forensic of Bibi Sakineh cemetery of this city, autopsy was done and due to sending the samples for toxicology tests, the result will be determined within the next one month”. Nina Zamani also added; “the reason of taking such a long time is the test that should be done on samples of my father’s body.”

Shahrokh Zamani, imprisoned worker in Rajai Shahr prison, in the fifth year of his life in prison, without any leave, died in the time between, morning until noon on Sunday, because of a stroke.

In September 2014, Shahrokh Zamani was not allowed to attend his daughter’s wedding and in February 2014, also this labor activists could not be present in his mother’s funeral and burial, even for a short time, this is while it was not possible for him to have regular visit with his family, because of the distance between Tabriz and Karaj.

Shahrokh Zmani, labor activist and painter, last time was arrested on 25th May 2011 in Tabriz, and was held for 36 days in solitary confinement. His official date of arrest has been mentioned as 9th June that shows he had been detained for at least 5 day without any warrant and illegally. The Branch 1 of Tabriz Revolutionary Court, presided by Judge Hamlebar, sentenced Shahrokh Zamani to 11 years imprisonment on charges of propaganda against the regime and the formation of groups to disturb national security, which was precisely upheld by the court of appeal.

After the interrogations on 19th October he was released on the bail of 202 million Tomans, from Tabriz Central Prison and shortly afterwards on 14th January along with Mohammad Jarahi, he was arrested again at his workplace and was transferred to Tabriz Central Prison to endure his sentence.

At the arrival in Tabriz prison he was illegally held for over a month in the quarantine ward of the prison, so that he went on a hunger strike again to protest the action, and after a while he was transferred to finance related crimes ward in Tabriz Prison. During his detention in this prison he was transferred from one ward to another for several times and had been harassed. Finally he was transferred to ward 15 of “Methadone”, the ward of drug addicted prisoners where has very bad health condition. According to the reports, dangerous diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis are prevalent there.

On 27th May 2012, he was illegally and without any warrant, transferred on handcuffs and shackles from Tabriz prison to the prison of Yazd. He then was returned to Tabriz again on 7thAugust and finally on 23 September he was transferred to Rajai Shahr prison, in Karaj.

Shahrokh Zamani, once again was transferred from Rajai Shahr prison to Tabriz on 8th September 2013 and by Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court was tried and subsequently, was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment on charges of insulting the leadership.

This imprisoned labor activist was transferred to Ghezel-hesar prison in Karaj, on 11th March 2014 and to protest against this transfer, he went on hunger strike. Following his hunger strike, the authorities again transferred him to Rajaee Shahr Prison, in Karaj, on14th April 2014.

This labor activist formerly had been arrested in 1993, on charges of illegal activities in the painters’ union and was imprisoned for about 18 months.

Shahrokh Zamani, a member of the Board of Directors and the Board Committee for the Establishment of Independent Trade Unions to Reopen the Union of Construction Workers and Painters, was held in political prisoners’ ward in Rajai Shahr prison, serving his fifth year of imprisonment without any leave.