Tehran: More than 4,000 Arrested During Anti-Government Protests
VOA News
27 Jun 2003, 14:26 UTC
Iran's state prosecutor says more than 4,000 people were arrested during recent anti-government protests.
Ayatollah Abdolnabi Namazi told Iran's student news agency (ISNA) Friday that about 40 percent of the detained people were released quickly. In Tehran, the center of the demonstrations, some 800 people were taken into custody. Observers say the large number of arrests demonstrates that the protests were actually much larger and more widespread than first thought.
The daily demonstrations began nearly three weeks ago around the campus of Tehran University, but quickly spread to other parts of the country.
Students and citizens demanded greater freedoms until a police crackdown largely silenced them.
On Monday, the Iranian government banned all off-campus protests planned to mark the July 9 anniversary of 1999 clashes between students and security forces in which one student died. But the government said it would be up to the universities to decide whether they would allow on-campus events.
Last week, a prominent Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, called for the death penalty in dealing with the demonstrators, saying they were "enemies of God" and had jeopardized national security.
In Washington, response to the demonstrations has been positive. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said last week that the United States encourages the protests against Iran's Islamic regime, but has not supported the demonstrators in any other way.
Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters.
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