Seventeen Iranian miners who protested after being made redundant were lashed between 30 and 100 times according to a report by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). This punishment carried out by the mullahs’ regime happened earlier this month.
The victims had worked at the Aq-Dareh Gold Mine in Western Azerbaijan Province, north-west Iran before being made redundant.
The Pouya Zarkan Company which runs the gold mine fired 350 of its workers in December 2014 which was the reason for a large protest by the sacked workers. They protested outside the guard’s office near the mine.
According to the NCRI, one of the former employees, due to the conduct of the guards towards the protesters and because of the immense pressure he was under after losing his income, committed suicide on 27th December 2014.
The regime’s judiciary in the province acted quickly and 17 of the former workers were prosecuted and received a prison sentence, a fine and flogging.
The state-appointed lawyer for these men, Vahid Yari, confirmed on Wednesday 25th May to the state-run ILNA news agency that the floggings were carried out earlier this month. He said that five workers got 100 lashes each, another five got 50 lashes each and the other seven got 30 lashes each.
