Four Students Detained

(5 January 2009) The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported that four students at Shiraz University, Abdoljalil Rezaiee, Kazem Rezaiee, Mohsen Zarinkamar, and Loghman Ghadiri Goltapeh, were arrested following summonses to the Intelligence Office in Shiraz on Saturday, 3 January 2009. The Intelligence Office subsequently informed their families that charges in their children’s cases had not yet been filed and that they would be kept in detention until the investigation ends. The families were not informed about the students’ whereabouts.“The persecution and prosecution of students for exercising their internationally-guaranteed right of peaceful assembly is totally unacceptable,” stated Hadi Ghaemi, spokesperson for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

“While students should enjoy a peaceful and quiet environment especially during these days, when they are preparing themselves for final exams, their studies and lives have been interrupted by politically-motivated detentions,” he added.On 5 December 2008, the Campaign documented threats against students who planned to peacefully celebrate National Student Day (6 December). For the event, two parallel gatherings were planned at Shiraz University on 6 December. The major gathering, supported by university authorities, was organized by the Basijis. Independent students organized another small gathering and informed the crowd that Free Tribune—an open public forum for expressing views often held on National Student Day—would be held on 8 December. On the following day, ten students were summoned by the head of the Herasat (an agency that enforces restrictive university rules) and warned to cancel the Free Tribune or face severe repercussions.

One of the students who were summoned told the Campaign that before the gathering on 8 December, a university guard tried to prevent the event by confiscating equipment. The students resisted and although one was beaten by the guard, the Free Tribune was held and attended by about 2500 students. He stated that “Later, reliable sources informed us that the university chancellor had ordered the guard to attack the students.”

Following the gathering and during the past three weeks, 37 students were summoned by the Disciplinary Committee and charged with participation in gatherings on 6 and 8 December. Seventeen of the students who received sentences found that their charges had been changed to “Causing Rioting and Chaos” and “Anti – National and Islamic Images and Propaganda against the State.” Moreover, these students were suspended from continuing their education for a total of 27 semesters, while another twenty students are still waiting for their sentences. The four detained students were suspended for two semesters each before they were summoned to the Intelligence Office.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran called on Iranian authorities to respect Iran’s national and international obligations to protect academic freedom and to immediately release the recently arrested students and halt further persecutions. The Campaign called upon the academic authorities of Shiraz University to drop all disciplinary sentences associated with the students’ peaceful gathering and to allow the students enjoy their basic rights, including freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and freedom of expression.
The list of the summoned students at Shiraz University is provided below.

For background information about the students at Shiraz University visit

http://www.iranhumanrights.org/themes/news/single-news/article/students-resist-prosecution-for-peaceful-protests.html

www.iranhumanrights.org/themes/news/single-news/article/police-attack-shiraz-university-seminar-after-days-of-student-protests.html

For more information on the alert by the International Campaign for Human rights in Iran on the occasion of the National Students Day visit
www.iranhumanrights.org/themes/news/single-news/article/allow-peaceful-celebrations-of-national-student-day.html

List of twenty-nine students at Shiraz University who were summoned to the Disciplinary Committee:
1. Mohsen Zarinkamar (suspended for two semesters and detained)
2. Akbar Hassanpour (suspended for two semesters)
3. Loghman Ghadiri (Suspended for two semesters and detained)
4. Afshin Houshang (suspended for two semesters)
5. Alma Ranjbar (suspended for two semesters)
6. Amin Karimi (suspended for one semester)
7. Armin Barazesh (suspended for one semester)
8. Amin Dorousti (written disciplinary in the educational file)
9. Kazem Rezaiee (suspended for two semesters and detained )
10. Saied Khalatbari (suspended for two semesters)
11. Abdoljalil Rezaiee (suspended for two semesters and detained)
12. Arash Roustaiee (suspended for two semesters)
13. Hadi Alamliee (suspended for two semesters)
14. Hamdoulah Namjou (suspended for two semesters)
15. Navid Ghafari (suspended for two semesters)
16. Hamed Masumi (suspended for two semesters)
17. Delbar Barkhoda
18. Rouholah Ghasemi
19. Esmaiel Jalilvand
20. Younes Mirhosseini
21. Ehsan Hashemi
22. Nasim Dalvand
23. Neda Eskandari
24. Mohadeseh Mahvi Shirazi
25. Fatemeh Aghaiee
26. Esmaiel Maadanchi
27. Kamran Mohammadi
28. Hemmat Jahanshahi
29. Mohammad Amin Karimi