Reports of Clashes between students and police

Adnkronos International:

Clashes between Iranian students and police are reported to have occured at the University of Tehran, following a protest by the students asking for the release of Iranian dissident and journalist Akbar Ganji, who has been in prison since 2000. Ganji's has been on a hunger strike in a Tehran jail for the past month and his health condition is deteriorating.

According to the Iranian student news agency ISNA, the university students asked for the liberation of other political detainees as well. The clashes occured when a dozen policemen, in their attempt to stop the protest, clashed with the students. READ MORE

Previously, about 200 university students gathered in front of the prison in which Ganji is being held. His wife has descibed his condition as being critical.

Ganji, who in the past published articles allegedly exposing the involvement of government officials in the murder of intellectuals and journalists in the 1990s, was jailed in April 2000, charged with "acting against national security." The journalist, who has already served 62 months in prison, suffers from acute asthma and is being held in solitary confinement at Tehran's Evin prison. He was allowed to leave prison temporarily in May, after he contracted pneumonia. After he was discharged he was imprisoned yet again before Iran's presidential elections.