Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Police beat protesters at protest rally in Iran

Reuters:

Iranian police beat dozens of protesters with batons on Tuesday at a demonstration to call for the release of Iran's most prominent jailed journalist.

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About 150 people, mostly students, had gathered in front of Tehran University chanting "political prisoners must be freed" when dozens of police moved in to break up the protest.

The rally was in support of Akbar Ganji, an outspoken critic of the Islamic state's clerical leadership who was sentenced to six years in jail in 2001 for articles he wrote alleging links between senior officials and the murder of political dissidents. Ganji's family and lawyers say he is suffering from poor health and needs medical treatment outside prison. They say he has been on hunger strike for more than 30days.

Judiciary officials say Ganji is in good health and is not on hunger strike.

A Reuters journalist saw police beat several protesters, including young women, in streets surrounding the university and was struck by batons several times himself.
It was not immediately clear if police made any arrests.

I have been hearing the size of the crowds were in the the thousands.