Detained Leftist Students on Brink of Freedom
Although the Ministry of Intelligence has accused leftist students arrested during a student gathering earlier this month of “acting against national security,” deputy head of the Majlis National Security Committee announced yesterday in a meeting with the families of detained students that “almost all of the detainees are students who have not committed any serious crime, but who have committed minor violations and will be punished lightly and accordingly.”
According to Nasser Zarafshan, who represents the detained students, more than 30 students have been arrested. A committee has been formed to follow up on the release of the detained students. In a statement released yesterday, the committee reported, “based on prior arrangements, the families of detained students met today, Tuesday, 28 Azar of 1386 [December 18, 2007], at 13:30, with Mr. Mohammadi, deputy head of the National Security Committee. Mr. Mohammadi, who attended the meeting half an hour late, was confronted by the families the students about reports of harsh treatment of detainees at Evin’s Ward 209. The families of students announced that even though reports of physical torture of their loved ones came from unofficial channels, they themselves had witnessed their loved ones being subjected to physical and psychological torture.“
The report continues, “In response to these protests, Mr. Mohammadi announced that representatives from the ministry of intelligence had briefed the lawmakers extensively about he details of these cases in a span of four meetings.”
Previously, Nasser Zarafshan told Rooz, “all of the detainees are students. We have the name of their universities, their years, and exact information about them. The number of the detainees is around 32, although there is some discrepancy about the names of 1 or 2 people and whether they were arrested or not. Other than that, the identity of the rest of them is clear. That’s why I don’t know that the ministry of intelligence means by ‘anarchist’ and ‘fabricated documents,’ although the ministry’s statement does not specify any names. If they mean the student movement, I have to say that those labels do not apply to these students. These detainees are students and did not become students yesterday or the day before. I hope that this not an example of a case in which they sew the clothes too big and now they have to fatten the body to fit the clothes. In effect, they went too far and now they want to justify it by throwing these wrong labels around.”
Protests were held in universities across Iran in response to the mass arrest of leftist students. Protests at the Shahid Rajai University were the latest instance. Students have announced that they will continue to protest until their colleagues are released from detention.