More than 100 held in Iranian protests

Published on Saturday 7 November 2009 19:03

IRANIAN police yesterday admitted they had detained more than 100 people for "disturbing public order" during opposition rallies last week.

Security forces clashed with supporters of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi in Tehran on Wednesday when an annual state-organised rally marking the 30th anniversary of the storming of the US embassy turned violent.

Police have previously not said how many people they rounded up during the unrest, the most serious to hit the country since the disputed June presidential election was followed by widespread violence.

Azizollah Rajabzadeh, head of Tehran police, yesterday said: "Police arrested 109 people who created disorder and disturbed public order and security on the sideline of the rally on Wednesday

"Some 62 of the detainees were jailed and the rest were released."

Iran's Revolutionary Guards and their allied Basij militia had warned the opposition not to try to hijack the rally to revive protests against the clerical establishment after June's disputed presidential election.

Defeated presidential candidates Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, who say they are committed to reform, had urged supporters to take to the streets to protest against the government despite warnings from the security forces about "illegal gatherings".

Security forces arrested an Agence France Presse reporter along with a Danish student in connection with the rally. The semi-official Fars news agency said on Friday that two foreign journalists had also been arrested on Wednesday. The report could not be confirmed independently.

Foreign media have been banned from covering street protests since the demonstrations over the June vote, which the opposition says was rigged in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's favour.

The turmoil after the June 12 vote was the worst in Iran since the embassy crisis.