Students protest against jail sentence on Abdollah
Nouri
TEHRAN, Nov 5 (AFP) - Some 800 students gathered at a Tehran university
campus Sunday to protest against a five-year jail sentence on leading reformist
Abdollah Nuri, a close ally of President Mohammad Khatami. (Related
photo here)
Some 800 male and female students rallied peacefully for some two hours
at the Allameh Tabatabai university, denouncing last month's punishment
of the former interior minister and vice-president for spreading "anti-Islamic
propaganda" in his daily Khordad.
They also condemned a three-year sentence on editor Mashallah Shamsolvaezin
in a long-running campaign by the conservative courts against Iran's reformist
press.
The students attacked "the presence of negative characters among
the jurors" of the Special Court for Clergy (SCC) who found Nuri guilty
and asked judiciary head Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi "to abide
by his promises of reforming Iran's judicial system".
"Nuri was sent to jail because he told of realities" they
said in a declaration asking judiciary officials "to review Nuri's
case in the presence of legal jurors".
Some students taped paper over their mouths "as a caustic reference
to the freedom of speech" a student told AFP.
"We can do nothing about Nuri's case since the people don't have
the power to decide and whatever we do might end in no result", a
law student said.
Nuri's pro-reform paper, one of the president's leading mouthpieces,
was also banned and he was barred from practising as a journalist for five
years, as well as being fined around 5,000 dollars.
Shamsolvaezin was jailed and fined by the hardline press court on charges
of insulting Islam.
The court's verdict on Nuri puts him out of the running for next February's
key parliamentary elections, which reformers hope will end the conservative
stranglehold on parliament.
Khordad was the fifth pro-reform daily to be shut down by the courts
this year.
SCC head Mohseni Ejei told a press conference Sunday that the authors
of the incriminating articles in Khordad which led to Nuri's conviction
would now have to answer to the courts.
Links
