news/ Update I

1- Sixteen, out of the original total of forty-seven, students have been released on extortionate bails, in some cases running up to tens of thousands of dollars, mostly acceptable only in the form of putting up the parent’s houses deeds as collateral. The list of the names of those still in jail, taken from the student site Aavaaye Daaneshgaah (The Voice of Universities: http://avayedaneshgah.blogfa.com/ ) is as follows:
1-Arash Pakzad; 2-Anooshe Azadfar; 3-Ilnaz Jamshidi; 4-Mehdi Geraylu; 5-Nader Ehsani; 6-Said Habibi; 7-Bahrooz Karimizade; 8-Keyvan Amiri-Elyasi; 9-Nasim Soltanbeygi; 10-Ali Salem; 11-Mohsen Ghamin; 12-Ruzbeh Safshekan; 13-Ruzbehan Amiri; 14-Yaser Pirhayati; ِ15-Said Aghaamali; 16-Ali Kalaai; 17-Amir Mehrzad; 18-Hadi Salari; 19-Farshid Farhadi-Ahangaran; 20-Amir Aghaai; 21-Milad Omrani; 22-Soroosh Hashempur; 23-Farshad Doostipoor; 24-Sohrab Karimi; 25-Javad Alizade; 26-Mohammad-Saleh Ayuman; 27- Mehdi Allahyari; 28-Bahram Shojai; 29-Said Aghakhani; 30-Majid Ashrafnejad; 31-Peyman Piran
2- The following communiqué has been released on Jan 1, 08 by the parents of the jailed students who intend to hold a protest assembly in front of the Revolutionary Courts building in Tehran on Jan. 5, 08:
It has been one month. A month of difficult and cold nights in front of the notorious Evin prison, a month of the insults of the guards, the threats of the interrogator, the groundless accusations and promises. We are on this side and our sons and daughters are on the other side of the Evin walls, in dark and cold solitary cells. The same repetitive story of being blindfolded, night interrogation, sleeplessness, beating and foul language etc, etc.
Our sons and daughters are under the highest pressures because of having called for equality and freedom at university, a place which belongs to them and on a day which belongs to them, i.e., Iranian University Students’ Day and we, the families, are kept in complete ignorance of their situation, without any permission for them to visit us or their lawyers; and all this is done in utter boycott of the country’s media and press.
After this long time, we find a rally in front of the public prosecution of the revolutionary court in Tehran at 11 a.m. on Saturday Dey 15 (Jan 5) to let our voice be heard by our children through these cold and grey walls so that they can know that they are not alone, so that they can know that their families, their friends and all free people stand beside them and will not succumb until their complete freedom.
Seeking Committee for the Freedom of the University Students
2008/1/1
3- Ruzbe Safshekan’s parents, drug store owners in Shiraz, have bravely put their jailed son’s picture, the list of all those still in prison, and a “WARNING” on the window of their store. These can be seen in the three pictures in the middle section of http://avayedaneshgah.blogfa.com/. According to this student site, dedicated to the news of students’ struggles inside the country as well as the news of the international support they get, this courageous, ingenious act has met with widespread support on the part of the people. The said WARNING reads:
Roozbeh Safshekan, engineer, poet, writer, and political science post-graduate student arrested on December 7 (Student’s day), 2007 must be released unconditionally. (Signed: Dr. Iraj Safshekan [father]; Dr. Taajolmolook Nowrooziaan [mother]).