IRAN: Mass arrests of activists reported ahead of national Student Day
Los Angeles Times / Alexandra Sandels
06-Dec-2009

Fearing that student activists and anti-government protesters once again will take to the streets during a state-sponsored holiday, Iranian authorities are stepping up measures to prevent demonstrations from erupting Monday when Iran marks its National Student Day.

With activists planning to stage fresh rallies, scores of students have reportedly been arrested and suspended from their universities in the last month, including top student leader Milad Asadi.

He was detained in his home on Tuesday and subsequently suspended from his studies at Iran’s Khajenasir University, according to the rights group International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, or ICHRI.

A press release issued by the group says as many as 90 students have been detained in security sweeps over the last weeks in what the organization calls an attempt by the authorities to “decapitate the student movement."

"In order to silence the student movement, a wholesale crackdown on Iranian students is underway, which not only violates their rights, but also disrupts their studies and the lives of their families,” said Hadi Ghaemi, a spokesperson for ICHRI. 

Meanwhile, Tehran's Amir Kabir University said in its newsletter that 60 students had been arrested in the country in the last m... >>>

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