IRAN:  IMF has been shocked and outraged to learn of the execution on May 9 of Farzad Kamangar, 35 year old teacher who was a member of the Teachers' Union of Kurdistan.

The threat of execution was pending on Farzad since February 2008 when he was accused of "endangering national security" and "enmity against God". However he was only guilty of trying to achieve better wages for teachers in his country.

Despite an accepted appeal to the Supreme Court Farzad's case has never been reviewed and his lawyer was told at some point that the documents from Farzad's file were lost; this however did not impede the authorities to execute the trade unionist without informing even his family in advance.

The International Trade Union Confederation and Education International tried on many occasions to convince the authorities to review the sentence. Farzad's case is not unique. IMF mourns the death of the Iranian trade unionist Farzad Kamangar and joins the ITUC in their demand "to halt further escalation of trade union repression and human rights abuses against trade union members", expressed in the recent ITUC letter to the leader of Iran.