NCRI – Following widespread uprisings by students in Iran and particularly the brave demonstration by the students at Polytechnic University (Amir-Kabir University), the Minister of Higher Education of the mullahs’ regime Mohammad-Mehdi Zahedi met with a number of hand-picked paramilitary Bassij students and Revolutionary Guards Corps members who are tasked with spying on university students. In the meeting, he accused student activists of moral corruption. Referring to the so-called “marked students”, he said, “These individuals have been found to be unfit because their records over the past three years include imprisonment, flogging, rape and other matters.”
Zahedi was appointed to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s cabinet for the sole purpose of suppressing students and combating the increasing number of demonstrations and uprisings. On November 17, 2006, he denied the “existence of marked students” and claimed that no one had been prevented from studying.
Meanwhile, according to information received from Tehran, following the demonstrations marking Iran’s Student Day on December 7, 2006 and subsequent to Ahmadinejad’s visit to Polytechnic University (Amir-Kabir University), agents of the State Security Forces (SSF) and Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) tried to identify and arrest the protests’ organizers.
The Iranian Resistance calls on all international human rights organizations and defenders of freedom of speech as well as student and cultural unions to condemn the suppression of students by the regime and support Iranian students.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 24, 2006
