Iran Focus: Tehran, May 10 – Hundreds of people are protesting in central Tehran in apparent condemnation of the execution on Sunday of five Kurdish political prisoners.
Iran Focus
Tehran, May 10 – Hundreds of people are protesting in central Tehran in apparent condemnation of the execution on Sunday of five Kurdish political prisoners. (11.30 am local time)
Some 600 people have gathered on the west of Enqelab Square amid tight security, an Iran Focus correspondent in Tehran says.
There have been chants of “Death to Khamenei”, referring to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Security forces attempted to make arrests.
The demonstration follows a night of similar acts of protest in the capital.
Chants of ‘Allah-o Akbar’, or ‘God is the greatest’, and “Death to Khamenei” could be heard from rooftops for several hours into the night in Tehran’s Imam Hossein, Vanak and Tehran-Pars districts.
Students told Iran Focus that at 4am local time on Monday security forces established a large presence in the vicinity of the University of Tehran in an apparent bid to intimidate students who had called for a rally later in the day to condemn the executions on Sunday.
The Tehran public prosecutor’s office in a statement on Sunday said Shirin Alam-Houli, Ali Heydarian, Mahdi Islamian, Farzad Kamangar, and Farhad Vakili were hanged at dawn in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.
They were convicted of ‘Moharebeh’, or ‘waging war on God’, in 2008 for membership in opposition Kurdish groups, including PJAK, and acting against State security.
According to sources from the town of Kamyaran, where Mr. Kamangar was a teacher for 12 years, hundreds took to the streets on Sunday to condemn the execution despite a heavy police presence.
