68 student organizations in Iran strongly criticize sentences issued against students
68 student organizations in Iran have strongly criticized the sentences issued against students and said they will not allow "totalitarians to target freedom again." At the same time, the Minister of Science has said that five of the students who were arrested during the January protests are still in prison.
A statement by 68 student organizations released on Monday, August 2, referred to the current situation in the country, which has caused "various types of popular dissatisfaction," and stated: "The justifying rhetoric of those in power has put the country on a dangerous path."
The statement also noted that last month, 63 student organizations announced their strong protest against security crackdowns and heavy judicial sentences against students, saying: "But the authoritarians showed that not only have the students' voices not been heard," but in recent days, Fereshteh Toosi, one of the student activists, has also been sentenced.
Fereshteh Toosi, a student activist from Allameh Tabatabaei University in Tehran, has been sentenced by a lower court to 18 months in prison and a two-year ban on participation in political parties and organizations, social networks, media and the press, and a travel ban, on charges of "propaganda against the regime."
According to Human Rights Watch, as of last week, at least eight students from Tehran and Tabriz universities have been sentenced to prison terms of up to eight years, and some other students have been banned from any political or media activity, and even from being on social media, for two years.
According to this report, Sina Darvish-Omran and Ali Mozaffari have been sentenced to eight years each, Leila Hassanzadeh to six years, Sina Rabiei to one year, Mohsen Haghshenas to two years, Roya Saghiri to 23 months, and Ali Kamrani and Ali Ghadiri to six months each.
On the other hand, Mansour Gholami, Minister of Science, Research, and Technology, told the newspaper "Etemad" that as of July 15, 12 percent of the students arrested in the January protests had been sentenced to prison terms ranging from "several months to several years."
According to Mr. Gholami, among the students who were arrested during the protests in January of last year, five are still in prison.
The Minister of Science, however, has said that the ministry is negotiating with the judiciary to overturn the sentences issued.
Last week, 125 professors from various Iranian universities wrote a letter to Hassan Rouhani protesting the arrests and sentences issued to students in recent months and calling for his "support" for the students.
In recent weeks, rallies have also been held to protest these rulings.
According to Parvaneh Salahshouri, a member of parliament, about 150 students were arrested during and after the nationwide protests of last January, and 17 of them have been sentenced so far.
Also, according to Mahmoud Sadeghi, another member of parliament, the students' sentences were issued based on reports and interrogations by the Rouhani government's Ministry of Intelligence.
During the 2013 election campaign, Hassan Rouhani promised to return students deprived of education to university and eliminate the "security environment" in universities.
However, in recent years, various student groups have repeatedly protested the "security" of university spaces and the "stardom" of students.
Source: Radio Farda
