U.S. disturbed by reports that peaceful protesters treated brutally by Iranian police

Yahoo News:

The State Department said it was disturbed by reports that peaceful protesters who demonstrated in support of a jailed Iranian dissident were treated brutally by Iranian police.

Spokesman Tom Casey on Thursday called on the "regime" in Tehran to exercise restraint and permit the Iranian people to invoke their right to peaceful assembly and free speech.

In the meantime, 33 Iranian political activists asked the United Nations to press for Ganji's release, warning his life was in danger because of his monthlong hunger strike, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Casey said Ganji was only one of many people thrown into jail in Iran simply for expressing their opinions peacefully. "There is no excuse for it," he said. "And it's not something the United States is going to stop speaking out on."