Monday, February 4, 2008

January 30 Picked as Day of Solidarity with Imprisoned Students


Iranian Bloggers Unite in Solidarity with Imprisoned Students - 2008.01.23


By Arash Sigarchi:On the eve of the second month of incarceration of several prominent student activists across the ‎country, Iranian bloggers have decided to celebrate 10 Bahman [January 30, 2008] as a day of ‎solidarity with imprisoned students. ‎
A statement published on the websites of united bloggers referred to complaints made by ‎families of detained students against the judiciary: "These families, who are under severe ‎psychological pressure and live in deep worry, have repeatedly condemned the imprisonment of ‎their loved ones and asked for their release. Despite many efforts to bring about the release of ‎the aforementioned students, a great number of these dear colleagues remain in detention. Some ‎are not allowed to even have telephone conversations with their families." ‎
Naser Zarafshan, who represents several of these imprisoned students, divides the detained ‎students into three groups: "currently, the students are divided into three groups. The first group ‎is composed of students that the judiciary has announced will be released after posting bail. The ‎second group is composed of students who are still in interrogation and for whom no bail has ‎been set yet. The third group is composed of students who were arrested last week and of whom ‎we have no accurate information." ‎
It is worth noting that the judiciary has set bail amounts of 300, 500 and 1,000 million rials [33 ‎thousand, 54 thousand, and 108 thousand U.S. dollars, respectively] for several students who ‎have completed their interrogations. Many of these students remain in jail as they are unable to ‎post the excessive bail amount. ‎

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