TEHRAN: An Iranian student leader Abdollah Momeni was seized in Tehran on Wednesday by unidentified men in plainclothes, a student told AFP Thursday. Momeni is secretary of the Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU), the main reformist student group, which has been involved in recent protests against the Islamic regime. âAbdollah Momeni was arrested by men in plainclothes while he was with other students at the entrance to the teacher training college,â the student, who declined to be identified, said. âHe was handcuffed and taken away in a white car,â adding that other students were threatened when they tried to intervene.
The OCU says scores of students were arrested in the wake of the recent demonstrations, and ahead of the July 9 anniversary of student protests which shook the country in 1999. The latest June 10-20 unrest saw a small protest at Tehran University over government education policy snowball into 10 days of countrywide anti-regime demonstrations and clashes. Iranâs judiciary, a bastion of hardliners, has asserted that only a tiny proportion of those arrested were students and that the majority of detainees were âhooligansâ. Deputy Higher Education Minister Gholam Reza Zarifian put the total number of students in the hands of Iranian intelligence at 80, including 32 arrested in Tehran, adding that the government was working to secure the release of those who had committed no offences.
"And how many's that?"
"Approximately, uhhhh... none." |
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