Great news that Mahmoud Salehi was freed on Sunday. He had already served his one year jail sentence, and it looked worryingly as though the authorities were planning to cook up fresh charges to keep him inside, prompting him to go on hunger strike and fellow unionists in Iran and around the world to join in protest until he was released. He joins Ebrahim Madadi of the Tehran bus workers’ union and, who were both also released from jail late last year, after arrests earlier in 2007 for union activity. Still behind bars though, with continuing fears for his health is Mansour Osanloo.

Some of these brave people have been in and out jail regularly in recent years and, with other colleagues imprisoned now including Ebrahim Gohari, Mohsen Hakimi, Alireza Asghari and Hossein Gholami, we have to be watchful that the Iranian authorities don’t just find new reasons to round them up again. Stepping up the efforts to free Mansour Osanloo needs to be the next step to building on the very welcome news of Salehi’s release.

UPDATE 11/4/8: It appears I may have spoken too soon. Salehi has been freed only on bail, whilst a new charge is being considered, which sounds pretty ominous for Salehi and his family.