By Vivek Thiagarajan
Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran-  In May 2007, three pro-democratic student protesters were arrested regarding their actions protesting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at the Amirkabir University.

In December, President Ahmadinejad launched scientific research to determine whether the Holocaust existed.  On the same day he came to the Amirkabir University to display his ability to silence his critics.  However, President Ahmadinejad’s speech to the Amirkabir student body was shortened because of the crowd’s disapproval with the president.  The pro-democratic student body was filled with protesters who chanted “Death to the Dictator” while hurling items at the Iranian president. The Iran security detail used flash grenades to ensure Ahmadinejad’s safe removal from the premises.  Allegedly during his removal, Ahamdinejad threatened student leaders of possible future retaliation.

Following the protest, three Amirkabir University students Ehsan Manouri, Ahmed Ghasaban, and Majid Tavakoli, were arrested as political prisoners.  However, reports show that the evidence used to indict the students may have been falsified by the police.

The Iranian government accused the students of being paid by the US government for beginning a velvet revolution to overthrow and destabilize the Iranian government.  A velvet revolution is also called a soft revolution, which indicates a bloodless revolution through the expansion of certain ideas rather than a revolution through force.  This may be a contributing reason to the new Iranian declaration that the CIA and the US military are terrorist organizations.  (International Herald Tribune)

The students were mistreated.  For example, reports show Mansouri was beaten so brutally that the prison guards would not initially accept Mansouri as a prisoner, unless he was taken to the hospital for immediate attention.

The students were taken to Evin, which is an Iranian prison for political prisoners where they were interrogated. They were placed in solitary confinement and supposedly beaten while in prison. The Guardian Observer reported that the college students “had undergone marathon interrogation sessions lasting up to 48 hours and frequently involving severe beatings. Interrogation teams of up to eight men have subjected the students to physical assaults interspersed with insults and psychological abuse. The students have been made to lie on the floor while interrogators stood on their backs. They are also said to have been beaten with electric cables. When they fainted from stress, the interrogators revived them by throwing cold water over them.”

The students have recently been released and reportedly did not have connections to the US government.

For more information, please see:

Guardian Observer- Tyranny in Tehran- 30 September 2007

International Herald Tribune- Iran government backs parliament’s ‘terrorist’ label for US army, CIA- 30 September 2007

Radio Free Europe- Iran: Former Inmates Shed Light On Secret Prison Ward- 27 September 2007