Iranian students stage anti-Ahmadinejad demonstration in Tehran

Dec 9, 2007, 17:23 GMT

Tehran - Iranian students staged a demonstration on Sunday at Tehran's university against the policies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and detainment of fellow students, ISNA news agency reported.

Hundreds of students, mainly from the reformist DTV students' group close to former president Mohammad Khatami, shouted slogans against Ahmadinejad and compared him with late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

ISNA said that the students also shouted 'students would rather die than accepting suppression.'

ISNA further reported that for allowing other students to enter the compound from outside, the demonstrators even broke the main gate of the Tehran university.

Riot police were stationed at the site but did not intervene although the DTV had no legal permission from the interior ministry for holding the demonstration.

The students, who had in the past staged several similar demonstrations against Ahmadinejad, further demanded from the judiciary release of all jailed students.

DTV spokesman Mehdi Arabshahi said at the demonstration that students could no longer tolerate turning the university into a 'security zone' and wondered why the government refused to grant permission of 'even such a small gathering.'

'Would such a small gathering really jeopardize the sovereignty of the administration?' Arabshahi asked.

'What we want is a university free of government control and the right to also use professors with different political standpoints,' he added, referring to use of only government-close professors in the Iranian universities.

According to ISNA the demonstration ended after almost four hours but the DTV students claimed that 'some persons' - reference to intelligence agents - took video films of them at the demonstration.