One student arrested, another summoned to court in Iran
Washington, 14 August (IranVNC)—Amir Mardani, a student activist and a senior mechanical engineering student at Tabriz University, was arrested yesterday, the Advar News website reports.
By: IranVNC
Published: Thursday, August 14, 2008
13:00GMT—9:00AM/EST
IRAN – STUDENT – ARRESTS
Washington, 14 August (IranVNC)—Amir Mardani, a student activist and a senior mechanical engineering student at Tabriz University, was arrested yesterday, the Advar News website reports.
Security forces arrested Mardani overnight after they raided and ransacked his father’s house. No reasons have yet been given for his arrest, or for the raid.
Mardani was previously arrested and detained for 20 days between May and June of 2006 for taking part in protests in Iran’s northwestern province of East Azarbayjan, over a cartoon that was seen as insulting of Iran’s ethnic Turks.
Four other students from this university were arrested on 18 July. Sajad Radmehr, Aydin Khajei and Faraz Zahtabi were charged with “disrupting the order and security of the university” and Dariush Hatami was charged with participating in protests for those seeking recognition of their Azari ethnic identity. All four are still being held.
Also yesterday, Mohammad Mehdi-Ahmadi, the former secretary of the Central Council of the Islamic Associations of Shiraz and Medical Sciences universities, was summoned to appear before the Revolution Court of Fars Province.
Mehdi-Ahmadi was detained for three days by Intelligence Ministry forces last winter following widespread student unrests at Shiraz University.
These arrests follow a wave of university student arrests during the month of Tir [21 June – 21 July] of this year, during which 22 student activists were detained.
Earlier this week, Mehdi Arab-Shahi, the political director of the Tahkim-e Vahdat student organization, told the Amir Kabir University student newsletter: “We will give a response to this summer’s confrontation with university students this fall.”
Sources: Advar News website, Amir Kabir University student newsletter
© IranVNC 2008. All rights reserved.
(Original article written in Persian.)