15 January 2010
While the Iranian Constitution allows for peaceful congregations which are not disruptive to Islamic principles, in the last actions against students participating in recent student protests, 18 Dezful Azad University students were handed heavy punishments of deprivation of education for half a year, deprivation of education for a full year, exile to another university in the region, or exile to another university outside the region for participating in recent protests. Several student activist told International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that over the past few weeks summons of student activists to disciplinary committees have increased dramatically. Some of these students have been told that if the mention their summons or if they are seen in student protests again, they would be deprived of their education. One of these students told the Campaign that during these discussions at Amir Kabir University, he was shown photographs of himself in recent student demonstrations, apparently developed from a video clip. This Amir Kabir University student also told the Campaign that he has been threatened by the university authorities and told that if he is seen in future student protests, his pictures would be turned over to security officers. According to Amir Kabir Newsletter, the penalized Dezful University students have been interrogated by security organizations in additionl to the University’s Disciplinary Committee, and the same security organizations had summoned them to tell them not to participate in student protests in December. According to reports, some of the Disciplinary Committee’s decisions were issued in the absence of accused students and the students were not allowed to defend themselves. Amir Kabir Newsletter reports that the Disciplinary Committee has held its meetings in the absence of accused students, proceeding to issue its decisions. The disciplinary decisions were served during the shut-down week prior to examinations in order to decrease risks of other students’ protests against it. Dezful Azad University students have demanded revocation of the disciplinary decisions and have announced that if these decisions are upheld, they will organize protest sit-ins. Names of some of the students who have received disciplinary decisions are: 1. Omid Azadi, exile to another university outside the region 2. Hossein Rahimi, deprivation of education for two half-years 3. Jamshid Jamshidi, deprivation of education for one half-year 4. Reza Paridar, deprivation of education and exile to another university inside the region 5. Mitra Paridar, deprivation of education for one half-year 6. Ghafour Farrokhian, exile to another university inside the region 7. Hassan Nahidi, deprivation of education for one half-year 8. Hossein Bayati, deprivation of education for two half-years 9. Dara Sabahi, exile to another university inside the region 10. Hassan Baghaee, deprivation of education for one half-year 11. Reza Dinarvand, exile to another university outside the region 12. Negin Alizadeh Shirazi, deprivation of education for one half-year 13. Saeedeh Mohaghegh, deprivation of education for two half-years 14. Mohammad Reza Jafari, exile to another university inside the region