03 Februar 2012

Reza Shahabi’s denial letter regarding the statement published in Vahed syndicate’s website and reconfirmation of his previous statement

Reza Shahabi’s denial letter regarding the statement published in
Vahed syndicate’s website and reconfirmation of his previous statement

Communiqué number 17 from the Reza Shahabi Defence Committee

After the publication of Reza Shahabi’s statement on 19/01/2012, an
article was published in Vahed syndicate’s website in which the
content was false; it was aimed to sabotage the credibility of Reza
Shahabi’s message and to misrepresent its content, which needs to be
addressed. The article that was published in the Syndicate’s website
contained a lie in the name of Reza Shahabi. After Reza Shahabi was
informed of the statement in Vahed syndicate’s website, he wrote a
letter and stated that the statement, which may have been prepared by
only one person with specific aims and motives, was untrue, and hence
he expressed his displeasure of the Syndicate’s website.

It seems that the statement published in the Syndicate’s website is a
combination of imagination, lies and destruction of personal
characteristics and orchestrated by a “writer” with a special interest
against the interest of the labour movement and also contrary to the
beliefs of Reza Shahabi and possibly in order to create problems for
him. The letter which seems to have been written by one “writer” is
reminiscent of the fact that the writer may imagine that the bigger
the lie the more believable it becomes!

However, Reza Shahabi, in his second letter in connection with the
‘Human Rights Award”, again stated that Mehdi Kouhestani is neither
his representative nor a like-minded person and he is not representing
any workers’ organisations in Iran.

Reza Shahabi’s letter is as follows. Here we attached, as an evidence,
a scanned copy of the Reza Shahabi’s first handwritten letter
(statement 19/01/2012) with his signature and his second letter in
which he denied the statement in syndicate’s website.

Reza Shahabi Defence Committee
………………………………………………………………………………………….

With greetings and respect to the board members and activists of Vahed
workers’ Syndicate and to the esteemed members of my defence committee
and all labour activists and organizations;

May I respectfully present, Monday night I was informed of the content
of a statement published in the syndicate’s website, in which it
alleged that Reza Shahabi, has denied his statement published on
19/01/2012 by his defence committee. A statement concerning a human
rights prize that has been given to a person named Mehdi Kouhestani
while neither both my family and I nor my defence committee were aware
of.  In fact the reality is that i approve my first letter.

The reality is that Mehdi Kouhestani is neither my representative nor
a like-minded person; he has never had any authority to represent the
Vahed Workers’ Syndicate or any other workers’ organisations in Iran.

 After publishing my statement on 19/01/2012 (first letter) by my
defence committee, one of the members of the Vahed syndicate who was
not happy with my statement, on Saturday 21/01.2012 announced that
this statement will raise questions about Mehdi Kouhestani and the
Vahed Syndicate. On the contrary, I believe that my statement, apart
from showing my position, proclaims Vahed syndicate’s independence
from the individuals who pursue anti-worker agenda.
This member of the Syndicate repeatedly asked me to deny my statement.
I declared that; what I have written is nothing but the truth. To
ensure that there are no discrepancies between my original statement,
even unintentionally, and the one that got published, I told him that
I would compare differences in my written text with the one released
by the defence Committee. When I compared them, I realised that  there
is no changes in the statement, therefore the Defence Committee had
done their responsibility flawlessly. I hereby declare once more that
the released statement by Reza Shahabi defence committee on 19/01/2012
is fully approved by me.

I am very sorry to see that the statement published in the Syndicate’s
website has absolutely misused my declaration that ” I will compare
the statement with my written text” and hence unfortunately, the whole
statement published in the Syndicate website, with has particular
motives and reasons, is false and fictional.

Dear friends

I announce my objection to the Vahed Syndicate’s website and then to
the organisation that dedicated the prize. I, due to the lack of
access to sufficient information, do not know the funding sources of
this specific organisation and who its members are. It is praiseworthy
if other friends could investigate these cases. I only believe in
contacting with organisations that are striving for the interests of
the labour movement. Nevertheless, my conclusive objection at least is
that why and for what reason and with whose recommendation Mehdi
Kouhestani was selected to receive something on my behalf.

Mehdi Kouhestani is neither my representative and nor a like-minded
person and he is not representing any workers’ organisations in Iran.

In the end, and once again, my request from all is that to consider
all materials published by the Defence Committee of my opinions, and
please contact this committee for all reasons.

Reza Shahabi,
 Worker in jail- The Treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors
of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus company
23 January 2012; 23 Hour
……………………………………………………………………………..

Distributed by Reza Shahabi Defence Committee
Contact information:
Mahmoud Salehi; Phone: 09188747104
k.d.shahabi@gmail.com
www.k-d-shahabi.blogspot.com