Iran students, MPs protest at arrests of dissidents

A group of Iranian students staged a sit-in and reformist deputies spoke out in parliament yesterday to protest against a wave of arrests of dissidents two months ahead of presidential elections. Student leaders addressed 150 students holding the sit-in outside a social sciences college in the capital Tehran, criticising the recent arrests of some 60 dissidents by a hardline Islamic revolutionary court.

Reformists close to President Mohammed Khatami fear the arrests may be part of a plan by hardliners to silence them ahead of the election due on June 8. "Such acts are a cause of shame for any state, let alone a government which sees its legitimacy in its popular support" said MP Mohammed Piran in parliament. His remarks were carried by the official news agency IRNA. "The prisoners have the respect of the people and will be among the people's heroes."

Security forces raided the homes of leading liberal Islamists on Saturday, arresting more than 40 prominent figures associated with groups advocating peaceful pursuit of freedom and democracy. It was the second mass round-up of dissidents in less than a month on charges of plotting to overthrow the Islamic state, a charge they strongly deny.

"When neither the government, nor parliament nor perhaps the Supreme Security Council are convinced over the reasons for these arrests, how can we expect public opinion to understand them?," deputy speaker Behzad Nabavi told the chamber. Khatami has criticised the arrests, the latest stage of a backlash by powerful conservative opponents who oppose his liberal reforms, but he has been unable to stop them. The embattled president, who still enjoys wide popular support, has yet to announce whether he will seek re-election.