Teachers’ rights activist Esmail Abdi has been sentenced to six years in jail according to the Workers and Teachers Rights Website.

Esmail Abdi

The report adds that the order was received by Abdi’s lawyer on Monday February 22.

Esmail Abdi was arrested last July, one week after he was prevented from travelling to Armenia and Canada to participate in international teaching profession events.

Abdi was arrested on several occasions over the past decade and sentenced to a 10-year suspended sentence.

Earlier reports in Kaleme indicated that Abdi was told by the Ministry of Intelligence to resign from his position as the head of the Teachers’ Association or be forced to serve his suspended sentence.

Teachers have staged several demonstrations in recent years to protest their low wages and bad working conditions, but Islamic Republic authorities have responded to the protests by arresting and prosecuting the activists. In addition to Abdi, Alireza Hashemi and Abdolreza Ghanbari are another two teachers currently in jail for political charges.

Previously, Mahmoud Beheshti Langaroodi, the spokesman for the Teachers’ Association, was sentenced to nine years in jail, and Rasoul Bedaghi, another teacher who had already served out his six-year sentence, was given another three-year jail term.