Iranian students receive sentences and face suppression for political activities against the regime

NCRI – In recent days, the Iranian regime has stepped up suppression in Iran’s universities. Students have been punished and gatherings have come under attack as the regime tries to curb mounting protests on the brink of the anniversary of the nationwide uprising in June.

Mohsen Sanati-Pour, Secretary of the Modern Faction of Islamic Association of the University of Ferdowsi and Medical Sciences of Mashhad, has been suspended for two terms by the so-called disciplinary committee of the University of Ferdowsi. The sentence is part of measures by security organs to increase pressures on student activists at the university which is located in the city of Mashhad.

Sanati-Pour is a member of defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi’s students committee during Karoubi’s campaign in February 2009 in Khorasan province. He was arrested in August 2009 by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and only released after posting a $100,000 bail.

In September 2009, he was suspended for two terms by the disciplinary committee, and on the orders of university officials and Khorasan security authorities the two term suspension has now come into effect.

Separately, in continuation of protests on central Tehran’s Free University campus, on May 23, 2010, students at the university’s law school launched a spontaneous protest. The act took place after security forces and the paramilitary Bassij Force attacked a gathering of technical college students on the previous day. As a result of the assaults, at least four students were seriously injured.

After the May 23 protests, Herasat (MOIS branch on campus) agents closely monitored the law school’s main entrance and controlled student traffic. Security forces freely walked around campus, threatening students with arrest and issuing disciplinary warnings. This is while under the regime’s own rules, security forces cannot interfere in rulings issued by disciplinary committees.

In the aftermath of frequent protests, the atmosphere at central Tehran’s Free University campus has become incredibly tense.

Over 40,000 students attend the university, making it the largest branch of Free University in Iran. Campus officials have prevented a plan to bring the various colleges closer together fearing the move would facilitate more student protests.

The colleges are located far apart from each other, with the technical college located in western Tehran at Punak Square and the law school located in central Tehran at Ferdowsi Square.