Personal clothing entering the student dormitory at the University of Tehran
Students: Dormitories are unsafe. Tehran University dormitory is more unsafe.
On Thursday, January 16, students at the University of Tehran protested and gathered to protest the entry of private students into the student dormitory. However, there is still no information about the status and whereabouts of the eight detained students at the university.
On Thursday, plainclothes forces appeared at the Student Martyrs' Dormitory, which belongs to Tehran University, and demanded the return of the mobile phones and personal belongings of detained Tehran University students. “A Tehran University student residing at the Student Martyrs' Dormitory said in an interview with the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that during the student gathering to protest the IRGC missile hitting a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing more than 176 people on board, security forces, in cooperation with Tehran University security, identified and arrested more than 8 students. The plainclothes forces were looking for the personal belongings and mobile phones of these students, but were met with opposition and protests from students in the dormitory.”
The student, who witnessed the presence of plainclothes officers in the student dormitory, told the campaign: “The eight students who were arrested are from different faculties of Tehran University, but unfortunately their families have not been allowed to disclose their names or the arrest of their children to the media. The university had also told us not to disclose their names to the media so that we could follow up and release them, but we found out that initially these students had been issued bails of between 50 and 100 million Tomans, which has multiplied the bails and prevented their release. On the other hand, the university security itself helped the security agencies identify these students who were present at the rally. During this time, the atmosphere on the university was completely inflamed, and with the plainclothes officers entering the dormitory, this inflammation spread to the dormitory as well, and we practically have no feeling of security.”
The Student Martyrs' Dormitory affiliated with the University of Tehran is located on Enghelab Street above the Taleghani intersection, at the corner of Farhangi Street or the former Behnam Street. On Thursday evening, students gathered in front of the university to protest the entry of uniforms. A student in the dormitory told the campaign: “After the rally on Tuesday, one of the special forces personnel wearing a uniform, armor, and a helmet entered the dormitory and spoke to the dormitory guard. They said he wanted to come and perform ablution or pray. In any case, his entry into the dormitory was illegal and prohibited, and we do not know why he came or what he said to the guard. On Thursday, around 10 to 11 am, two people in plain clothes came into the dormitory looking for the belongings of the arrested students. They thought we were not involved in the arrest of these children, so they introduced themselves as the children’s relatives and claimed that they had come on behalf of the family and wanted the children’s mobile phones, which was met with protests and resistance from the dormitory students. Finally, they took the roommates of one of the arrested students to the guardroom and gave them a report to sign, saying that they were from the security police. The children did not sign and said that they had entered the dormitory illegally. The rest of the dormitory students gathered in front of the guardroom door and pushed the plain clothes out of the dormitory.”
According to the students, the entry of the uniforms into the student dormitory was coordinated by university officials. One student who was an eyewitness told the campaign: “The secretary of the Tehran University trade union council was present in the dormitory and tried to inform the security and the university administration that they had said that they were aware of it, meaning that they had entered with their coordination.”
A number of students from the Student Martyrs' Dormitory gathered in front of the dormitory on Thursday evening and demanded accountability from university officials. One of the students told the campaign: “Students decided to hold a sit-in in front of the dormitory that had been violated by the security forces to protest this illegal act. We sat in front of the Student Martyrs’ Dormitory and suddenly a large number of special unit motorbikes came, more than 50 to 60 motorbikes parading around us, while our gathering was a silent gathering and no slogans were raised, and we were demanding the presence of Soleimani, the head of the university’s security, to respond. Police cars were also deployed, and finally Mr. Soleimani, who came, insulted the security forces, as if he was protecting the interests of the security forces at the university instead of protecting the security of the students at Tehran University. He said that the students arrested inside the university had committed a crime and that we would coordinate with the security police. He said that their crime was insulting the leader and at the same time one of his assistants was filming us, who was forced to delete his footage and leave our dormitory when the students protested. We were protesting the arrest of the students and the presence of plainclothes in the university, but we did not receive a proper response. Even now, the atmosphere in the dormitory is tense and the students practically do not feel safe. The dormitory "The University of Tehran is practically not a safe place, and all the kids are worried, both about the detained students and about their own safety in the dormitory."
Amir Sharifi, a student at the Student Martyrs' Dormitory, wrote on his personal Twitter: "The silent sit-in in front of the dormitory door has been violated by the University of Tehran. Tonight, to show off their strength against our sit-in, they brought out a few dozen special forces motorcycles. Starting tonight, all dormitories are unsafe. The University of Tehran dormitory is even more unsafe. It is not known where we will wake up in the morning."
The names of the arrested students at Tehran University have not been announced yet due to opposition from their families, and there is no information about their status or whereabouts. At the same time, the country's student union councils announced the arrest of Zanyar Ahmadpour, a bachelor's degree student in economics, Meysam Soleimani, a master's degree student in mechanics, and Arshad Atabak, a master's degree student in Arabic literature, during a student rally at the University of Kurdistan on Wednesday. Mohammad Esmaeili, a master's degree student in photography at the University of Tehran, is still in detention, and Mohammad Amin Hosseini, former secretary of the union council at Noshirvani University of Babol and a law student at Gorgan University, and Majid Mehrpuri, a master's degree student in laser at Kharazmi University, who were arrested during the protests, were released yesterday.
Fatemeh Mohammadi is one of those arrested during Sunday's rally in Tehran's Azadi Square. There is no information about her whereabouts or condition.
Reports from Tehran indicate a continued security and military atmosphere in the city, with eyewitnesses telling the Campaign that plainclothes forces, special guards, black special guard vehicles, and motorcyclists are deployed in the streets and squares of Tehran. Arrests continue, and Hossein Masoumi and Vida Rabbani, activists who had received phone calls from security forces in recent days in connection with public gatherings protesting the downing of a Ukrainian plane by the IRGC, were arrested on Wednesday.
Zia Nabavi, a prominent student activist in Iran, wrote on his personal Twitter: “Yesterday evening on Enghelab Street, I saw plainclothes men dragging a young man towards Fakhr Razi Street. His friends who were standing at the intersection said that he had only taken a picture of the scene on the other side of the street and the crowd of special forces! In short, if your presence is such a source of shame, stop besieging the university.”
Shahnaz Akmali, the mother of Mustafa Karim Beigi, one of the victims of the 2009 presidential protests, who was sentenced to one year in prison on charges of “propaganda against the regime” for following up on her son’s death, was imprisoned on Wednesday. Ms. Akmali’s sentence was confirmed by Branch 36 of the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeal without holding an appeals court and hearing the final defenses.
Shahnaz Akmali posted a photo on her personal Twitter account and wrote: “I take my son’s photo with me to prison because I know it is my strength. I am a mother whose crime is repeated lawsuits and a simple question that I have never received an answer to: Who killed my son?”
Source: Human Rights Campaign
