Tehran
Iranian court officials arrested five leaders of student protests this week, spraying tear gas at them and bundling them into cars. The five had been rallying thousands of students every day for two weeks to protest the death sentence imposed on Hashem Aghajari, a popular professor. Aghajari was charged with heresy for urging students to interpret the Koran for themselves, instead of blindly following hard-line clerics. Moderate politicians asked the students to quiet down after the nation’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened a crackdown.“Those who accuse the Islamic system of despotism and being against freedom are either the enemy or have been deceived by the enemy,” said Khamenei. Three years ago, similar demonstrations were violently suppressed, and the ringleaders are serving long jail sentences.
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