Tehran Demonstrators:”Ganji, Ganji”

Roozonline:

Rooz Online correspondents filed reports on a four hour long demonstration held in downtown Tehran, in which participants demanded the release of all political prisoners. At the same time secret negotiations were being held to bring about the release of dissenter Akbar Ganji who is on the thirty second day of a hunger strike.

About three hundred protestors gathered in support of Ganji around five in the afternoon and after a few hours their numbers grew to a thousand. Demonstrators were met by military forces that initially blocked access to streets to prevent crowds from gathering, and later clashed with demonstrators. Several students, a former member of the sixth parliament, a university professor and a former political prisoner were among several dozen beaten and arrested on charges of demonstrating without a permit and inciting the public.

Mousavi Khoeniha a former member of parliament who was later hospitalized initially tried to negotiate with the military commanders, asking them to allow the gathering and to refrain from attacking the students. A commander told him, however, that the military was under strict orders to engage protestors. The commander added that the reformists' time was up and in the coming years they (the hardliners) would see to it that such demonstrations were put to an end. The absence of Hezbollah and plain clothesmen is being discussed and analyzed in various political circles.