Dissident student leader freed after two days in jail
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
October 9, 2000, TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A dissident student leader was
freed on bail Sunday after two days in police custody apparently for launching
a political party seeking wide-ranging democratic reforms, his wife said
Sunday. Heshmatollah Tabarzadi was arrested Friday by plainclothes police
immediately after the first meeting of the newly founded Iranian People's
Democratic Front, Mahbobeh Alinaqian told The Associated Press.
"As he was returning from the first meeting of the group, men
in plain clothes arrested my husband without giving any reason. He was
freed on bail Sunday evening. The authorities also gave no reason for his
release," she said. Their son, Mohammed, 17, was beaten by police
when he tried to prevent them from taking his father, Alinaqian said.
She said her husband had set up the new group in order to expand his
political activities. The front seeks faster and more far-reaching democratic
reforms than those initiated by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.
The Islamic Students Association, which was previously headed by Tabarzadi,
issued a statement Saturday condemning his arrest and warning that its
supporters would take to the streets in protest if he was not released
by late Sunday.
This is the fourth time that Tabarzadi, 40, and a father of six, has
been imprisoned in the past three years. He was last jailed in June for
a gathering at Tehran University where he led the crowd in chanting antigovernment
slogans.
Tabarzadi said after his release in September that he would keep fighting
for political freedoms even if it meant being jailed for life.
Meanwhile, newspapers reported Saturday that 150 people had been arrested
by police in connection with unrest in western Iran in August. One policeman
was killed during several days of riots in the city of Khorramabad, 485
kilometers (300 miles) southwest of Tehran last summer.
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