TEHRAN — Three Iranian labor rights activists have been released more than two years after their arrest, their lawyer told AFP on Wednesday.

“My clients Keyvan Mohtadi, Reza Shahabi and Hassan Saidi were released Sunday after the judiciary commuted their sentences,” the lawyer Hossein Taj said.

All three had been sentenced to six years in prison after convictions for conspiracy against the state.

In addition to being a labor activist, Mohtadi was a translator for French nationals Jacques Paris and Cecile Kohler who remain in prison after they were arrested in May 2022 and accused of spying.

Mohtadi, 38, was arrested alongside his wife Anisha Asadollahi the same month in their home in Tehran.

Shahabi and Saidi, unionists working for Tehran’s public bus authority, were arrested in April and May 2022 respectively.

The lawyer Taj said the three had been released following a decision to commute their sentence on appeal.

He added that said the three were subject to a pardon from Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei decreed in February 2023.

AN-AFP