IRANIAN rights activists are demanding the release of teachers jailed for their trade union activities in what has been described as a “cat and mouse operation.”

The Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association of Tehran (ITTA) urged the clerical regime to stop fabricating cases against trade unionists after Mohammed Habibi was sacked by the Iranian Education Ministry nearly two years after he was jailed.

Mr Habibi was charged with “association and collusion against national security, disseminating propaganda against the state and disrupting public order.”

These charges are frequently used by the Iranian regime to silence opposition voices and political and trade union activists.

Mr Habibi was initially sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison as well as 74 lashes and was banned from working with political groups for two years. His sentence was reduced to seven years and six months on appeal.

Attacks on teachers have escalated with ITTA leader Esmail Abdi rearrested last month in a move condemned by Education International and other global trade unions.

He had been held in the notorious Evin prison since 2015 after he was arrested for leading demonstrations in the capital. Mr Abdi had applied for a visa to attend the Education International World Congress before he was jailed.

He was temporarily released in March under the government’s measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 in Iranian prisons, but was detained again last month.

The United Nations has called for all prisoners of conscience and those unjustly held in Iran to be released immediately.

Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights (Codir) assistant general secretary Jamshid Ahmadi warned that the regime is “playing cat and mouse with people’s lives.”

He demanded the immediate release of the jailed trade unionists whose only crime is to call for democracy and social justice in Iran.

“We want all trade unionists to back our call for their freedom,” he said.