The gathering of students at the University of Tehran to protest the judicial verdicts of a number of arrested students continued for the fourth day.
According to news published on social media, students protested the 5- and 8-year prison sentences handed down to some students arrested during the protests in January of last year, calling on the Ministry of Science to intervene in the matter.
The students have stated that the Ministry of Science should not claim that the issue is out of the government's hands because the Ministry of Intelligence was the one in charge of the students' case.
In recent days, students at the University of Tehran have held protest rallies and announced that they will not participate in the end-of-semester exams until the status of the detained students' legal cases changes and the Ministry of Science intervenes to change these rulings.
On Wednesday, June 20, the Deputy Minister of Culture and Science told news agencies at the end of the fourth day of student protests that the Ministry of Science had provided the names of students with judicial sentences to the Tehran Prosecutor's Office so that their status could be considered in the review process.
Gholamreza Ghafari said that so far, the sentences of four male students and two female students, who were arrested during the protests in January last year, have been announced, and many, including students, believe that these initial sentences were harsh and far from fair.
He stated that the Ministry of Science has contacted the prosecutor's office and the judiciary to change the rulings during the appeal stage, and said that in the first stage, students must submit an appeal bill.
In this regard, in the middle of June, it was also announced that a female student from Fereydoun Kenar, who was arrested during the nationwide protests in January 2017 and is currently imprisoned in Babol, has been sentenced to 6 years in prison.
During the nationwide protests in January of last year, and in the first week of the protests alone, according to Parvaneh Salahshouri, a representative from Tehran in the parliament, at least 90 students were arrested.
Mahmoud Sadeghi, another representative from Tehran, also announced the filing of legal cases against about 50 students.
Leila Hosseinzadeh, secretary of the Central Student Union Council of Tehran University, was also among those arrested. Last March, she was sentenced to 6 years in prison and 2 years of "curfew."
Protests began in Iranian cities on Thursday, January 27. Initially, these protests were economic in nature, but gradually spread from Mashhad to Kermanshah and other cities in Iran. In the widespread protests in large and small cities of Iran, protesters also chanted slogans against the regime and the Leader of the Islamic Republic.
The US government issued statements supporting the Iranian people and their demands on the second day of the protests. Prominent figures in the US Congress also stated that the United States must stand with the Iranian people.
Source: Voice of America
