LA protesters call for the release of Iranian political prisoners

San Francisco Chronicle :

Hundreds of demonstrators called for the release of student leaders held since 1999 by the Iranian government during a rally Sunday at the Federal Building in West Los Angeles.

The protesters marched in support of Manoucher Mohammadi and Akbar Ganji, who were arrested in a crackdown on anti-government protests at Tehran University in July 1999 and who have recently embarked on a hunger strike.

The government jailed about 1,200 people during the crackdown. Most were freed soon after, but Iranian authorities have continued to jail those accused of leading the protests. READ MORE

At the time of the crackdown, Iran's Interior Ministry paraded Mohammadi on television and claimed he had spearheaded the "disorder and violence." The ministry said that Mohammadi had confessed to receiving money from "Zionist elements."

Mohammadi and Ganji are both currently on hunger strikes, family members said.

Mohammadi's sister, Nasrin Mohammadi, said her brother's hunger strike has lasted 36 days and he is in a coma.

"He has a bad situation," Nasrin said. "My parents are stressed and they are worried. He may not have many days left."

In a statement on the prisoners, Human Rights Watch last month said that an unknown number of students remained in custody out of the thousands it claimed had been initially arrested.

The protesters Sunday also called for an end to the Iranian government's recent mistreatment of the country's Kurdish population who have been brutalized in a series of crackdowns similar to those in 1999.

"We wanted to show support of the Iranian Kurdish people that the regime has taken part in atrocities against," said Morad Moallen, one of the event's organizers. "We had both Iranians and Kurds here. There were political groups here, both leftists and rightists, all of them in support of political prisoners."
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