Iran Police Detain 109 Over Rally

PR Log (Press Release) – Nov 07, 2009 – The protests coincided with an official rally to mark 30 years since the storming of the US embassy during the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The 109 people were on the fringes of an opposition-organised demonstration when they were detained.

Security spokesman Azizollah Rajabzadeh said 62 are due to face trial while the others were released after questioning.

The opposition has taken to the tactic of using the relative safety of officially-sanctioned demonstrations to come out in big numbers and turn the official rallies into a show of force of its own, with different and opposing slogans.

Mr Rajabzadeh said of those who have been handed over to the judicial authorities, 43 were men and 19 were women, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.

Student held

Witnesses told the BBC the security forces had used tear gas and batons. The Iranian government defended the response, saying that the protests had been illegal.

Opposition supporters say the elections were rigged to ensure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

At least 30 protesters have been killed in clashes since the elections. Thousands have been arrested, and some 200 opposition activists remain behind bars. Three have been sentenced to death.

Meanwhile, the Danish government has said it is trying to make contact with Danish journalism student Niels Krogsgaard, who was held in Iran after covering the anti-government protests.

Charlotte Slente, from the Danish foreign ministry, said Iran had confirmed the 31-year-old was in a Tehran prison but had not given any further details, the AFP news agency reported.

Iran has tightened reporting rules since protests flared in the days following a disputed presidential election in June.


A Canadian, a Japanese and an Iranian journalist were held for covering the protests without a permit, the semi-official Fars news agency said on Friday.

On Saturday, IRNA reported Tehran’s general prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi had announced the release of one Canadian and two Germans.

There has been no confirmation so far as to whether or not this is the same Canadian.


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