DATE=7/11/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IRAN / RIOT VERDICT (L-O)
NUMBER=2-264295
BYLINE=LAURIE KASSMAN
DATELINE=CAIRO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: An Iranian court has acquitted Tehran's former
police chief and 17-associates of any wrongdoing in
the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations last
year in the Iranian Capital. Correspondent Laurie
Kassman has the latest details from our Middle East
Bureau.
TEXT: The acquittal verdict coincides with the first
year anniversary of the pro-democracy demonstrations,
which ended in violent clashes with police. At least
one student was killed and hundreds more injured
during two-days of street riots that marked the worst
wave of violence since the 1979 Islamic Revolution
ousted Shah Reza Pahlevi. It shocked and unnerved the
government, which moved quickly to stop it.
Iran's state news agency says Tehran's former police
chief and 17 policemen have been acquitted of assault
charges brought by students severely beaten in the
clashes. Farhad Nazari and his co-defendants had been
charged with using unreasonable force against the
students and illegally entering the Tehran University
campus.
One police sergeant has been sentenced to 91-days in
jail and fined for stealing a student's electric razor
during the police raid on a Tehran University student
hostel. Another officer has been sentenced to two-
years in jail for disobeying orders not to enter the
hostel.
But many reformers say the police agents on trial are
not the real organizers of the attack, who have never
been identified or reprimanded.
There were small demonstrations outside Tehran
University last Saturday to mark the first-year
anniversary of the crackdown.
Meanwhile, reformist President Mohammad Khatami is
visiting Germany to repair relations damaged by German
allegations linking Iran's Islamic leadership to a
1992 assassination of an Iranian dissident. Mr.
Khatami has been struggling to soften Iran's hard-line
image abroad while pushing for democratic reforms at
home. (SIGNED)
NEB/LMK/GE/RAE
11-Jul-2000 08:32 AM EDT (11-Jul-2000 1232 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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