About 5,000 angry students gathered at Tehran University today as protests grew over the death sentence issued to a reformist scholar close to President Mohammad Khatami. ...
The protests, which began four days ago, have spread to two other major universities in Tehran, Amir Kabir and Shahid Beheshti, where meetings were held today. The daily newspaper Hambastegi reported that on Monday, there also were protests in Kerman, Tabriz, Isfahan, Orumieh and Hamedan. Students said today that the sentence was an insult to the university community and violated freedom of speech, and they demanded Mr. Aghajari's immediate release. They chanted slogans against Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the hard-line chief of the country's judiciary, and threatened an uprising. ...
The demonstration today lasted over six hours and ended peacefully. A large number of security forces and riot police were stationed outside the campus. Students said that six protesters had been arrested on Monday and that one was badly beaten. Another demonstration is planned Wednesday. As the protests widened, Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said he would call on "the public force" to intervene if problems were not solved by the regular police forces. He did not elaborate, but the term "public force" generally refers to the hard-line Revolutionary Guards and the militia, which fall under his authority. The militia was used to suppress the 1999 student uprising. NY Times (excerpted)
Looks like the Louisiana pubbies are forming a circular firing squad. TERRELL'S EFFORTS TO UNIFY GOP FALTERING Good Grief.