Mahmoud Salehi, a prominent leader of the labor movement, was assaulted by plainclothes agents in Saqqez on International Workers’ Day.
According to Kolbarnews, on Thursday, May 1, 2025, Mahmoud Salehi an influential activist and leader of the Kurdish and Iranian labor movement was attacked and beaten in Saqqez. The report states that plainclothes agents targeted Salehi while he was walking in the area, allegedly due to his presence there. Emergency medical personnel arrived at the scene shortly after to attend to him.
Salehi had undergone artificial vascular surgery the previous year, and in recent years has suffered from serious health complications due to repeated imprisonments, lack of access to proper medical treatment, and harsh prison conditions.
This attack comes amid a familiar pattern: intensified repression of labor activists around May 1 in recent years.
Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Salehi has been arrested at least 19 times on various charges and has spent a total of eight years in prison. In 1998, during an unlawful detention in the solitary cells of the Saqqez Intelligence office, he suffered severe frostbite and kidney damage due to a hunger strike in protest. His kidneys later began to hemorrhage, and he was placed on dialysis.
During another arrest on April 28, 2015, despite repeated warnings to interrogators about his kidney condition, Salehi’s medication was discontinued resulting in the complete failure of both kidneys that very night. Since then, he has undergone hemodialysis twice a week, each session lasting four hours.
In response to Salehi’s and Osman Esmaeili’s sentencing, several French labor organizations including CFDT, CGT, Fédération Syndicale Unitaire (FSU), Solidaires, and UNSA issued a joint statement condemning the convictions and demanding their release from Saqqez Prison.
Osman Esmaeili has also been denied proper medical care amid increasing pressure on labor leaders. On Friday, June 21, 2024, due to worsening hernia complications, he was hospitalized and underwent surgery at the Kurdistan Surgical Clinic in Mahabad. Though the procedure was successful, doctors recommended at least two weeks of rest in a calm and hygienic environment for full recovery.
Additionally, Esmaeili suffers from spinal canal stenosis and, according to the official forensic medical office in Sanandaj, requires surgery. After receiving medical leave approval on May 26, 2024, he underwent angioplasty on June 2 at Towhid Hospital in Sanandaj due to a cardiovascular condition.
