news/ Update II

Jan. 9, 2008

1- besides still holding the students in unknown places, the regime has launched a campaign of summoning the “less visible” organizers of protest actions on December 7th, as well as those detained or otherwise punished for their prior activities to the so-called “disciplinary committees”, only to inform them that they have been banned from their colleges or universities anywhere from one semester to a whole academic year;
2- on Jan. 3rd a group of parents of the detained socialist students, who call themselves “students for freedom and equality”, wrote a letter to UN Secretary General and Louise Arbour, High Commissioner for Human Rights, in which they stated:
“we issue this declaration from within a country in which humans are deprived of even their most basic rights, i.e., the right to think, write, and speak; from within a country in which any one who utters the words “right” or “social justices” will be kidnapped by the regime’s agents, marked with irrelevant brands, which are subsequently publicized by infamous state-run media… It all started at 9 A.M. on Sunday, December 2nd, when the freedom-seeking students of the land were attacked in their homes or at their universities and taken to unknown places without any trace of them in any record books of any of the judicial authorities. It was only as a result of the perseverance of us parents that, finally, on December 8th their names were registered in the books of the Revolutionary Court. The families would not, however, be told where they were being kept. It was only on Jan. 14th that we were told our children were held in ward 209 of Evin prison [in Tehran].
Libertarians of the world! Today, the brave sons and daughters of this land are held in captivity of the regime of Islamic Republic. All of the authorities refuse to let them exercise their right to meet with their lawyers or even their families, despite the civil rights of the country that recognize such rights for any detainees. We are now reaching out to you, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General, and to you Ms. Louise Arbour, High Commissioner for Human Rights, and to all of you human rights organizations, humanist institutions and societies across the world to help us release our sons and daughters” (our translation).