Top Student Leader Arrested

(2 December 2009) With the approach of the National Students Day, December 7, the authorities have stepped up persecution and prosecution of student activists throughout the country, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.

Authorities arrested prominent student leader Milad Asadi, a member of the Central Council of the Student Union to Foster Unity (Daftar e Tahkim Vahdat), at his home on the afternoon of 1 December. Three other members of the Central Council, Bahareh Hedayat, Mehdi Arabshahi and Farid Hashemi, were summoned on 29 November to appear before the Revolutionary Court on 2 December. Another member of the Central Council, Abbas Hakimzadeh, was arrested last week and remains imprisoned.