Three Kurdistan University students arrested on fourth day of anti-government protests
Some reports indicate the arrest of senior student activists at the Kurdistan University, Muslim Soleimani, secretary of the university's Islamic Students' Association, and Zanyar Ahmadpour, a member of the Islamic Students' Association of the University of Kurdistan, on the fourth day of protests against the downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane.
According to reports published on some social media, these three students from the University of Kurdistan were arrested by security forces on Wednesday, January 15, with "physical violence" and taken to an unknown location.
These reports state that the Islamic Association of Kurdistan University Students had sought permission from the University of Kurdistan to hold a rally to commemorate the victims of the Ukrainian plane that was shot down by the IRGC and killed 176 people on board; however, after obtaining permission, due to what was described as “pressure” on university officials, the officials withdrew their support for the students in holding the rally. With the cancellation of the permission to hold the memorial ceremony, the university students spontaneously and without the intervention of various institutions and organizations, began holding a ceremony to commemorate the victims of the accident. After the ceremony, senior atabak, Muslim Soleimani, and Zaniar Ahmadpour were arrested.
These reports describe how these students were arrested as follows: After the ceremony ended, plainclothes forces attacked the vehicle carrying the students, stopped the vehicle, dragged the students out, and violently arrested the three students.
One of these social media accounts, by publishing this news, strongly condemned the arrest and illegal treatment of these students by security agents, and identified Kurdistan University officials as one of the perpetrators of this incident.
Previously, the Voice of America reported that Gholamhossein Esmaili said on Tuesday, January 14, that about 30 people had been arrested in the protests over the recent days of the downing of a Ukrainian plane by the Revolutionary Guards, which killed 176 people.
Amnesty International has also announced in its latest statement that it has obtained information regarding the arrest of a large number of people, including university students and protesters, in the cities of Isfahan, Zanjan, Amol, Babol, Bandar Abbas, Kermanshah, Sanandaj, Mashhad, Shiraz, Tabriz, and Tehran.
Philip Luther, Amnesty International's West Asia and North Africa Research Director, has stated that detainees must be protected from torture and other ill-treatment and that the Islamic Republic authorities must immediately release all those arbitrarily detained.
On the morning of Wednesday, January 8, a Ukrainian Boeing 737 crashed near the new city of Parand, Tehran Province, minutes after taking off from Imam Khomeini Airport bound for Kiev, with 176 people on board.
On Saturday, January 11, after several days of denial, the Islamic Republic of Iran finally admitted, under international pressure, that the downing of the passenger plane was caused by an unintentional missile fired by the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
A day earlier, US President Donald Trump had called the Ukrainian plane crash in Iran a "tragedy" on Thursday, January 9, and said: "I have my doubts too. It's a very painful thing. There have been doubts about this crash. Maybe someone made a mistake there."
An hour after the Islamic Republic admitted to shooting down a passenger plane, a new round of protests has begun in various cities in Iran.
Following these protests, President Trump and US officials warned the Iranian regime and called for it not to suppress the protesters.
Source: Voice of America
