Iran Jails Three Students for Insulting Islam

ICC Note: Fascinating article if you dig into it. This isn't persecution of Christians but it shows the hatred of the ruling regime in Iran. They are thugs and will stand no criticism. Followers of Iran news will remember the incident mentioned at the end of the article: “President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the target of 
heckling in a stormy address to the university last year”. It gives us a glimmer of hope for the future of Christianity in Iran. 

Iran Jails Three Students for Insulting Islam
By Agence France Presse (AFP) 
Wednesday, October 17, 2007


Iran/Islam (Daily Star) Iran on Tuesday handed down jail sentences of at least two years each to three students imprisoned since May on charges of insulting Islam, the Mehr news agency reported.


The three students from Tehran's Amir Kabir University - Ehsan Mansouri, Majid Tavakoli and Ahmad Ghassaban - were among eight arrested on suspicion of publishing anti-Islamic images in four student reformist newspapers.
"The verdicts for the accused Amir Kabir students were issued today," their lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said, according to the Mehr news agency.


"Ehsan Mansouri has been sentenced to two years in prison, Majid Tavakoli to three years and Ahmad Ghassaban to two-and-a-half years," he said. 
Dadkhah,who is a member of Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi's group of human rights defenders, said that it was not clear whether the sentences issued by Tehran's revolutionary court meant prison or suspended terms.


The other five arrested have since been released, but this trio has been detained since May with the authorities saying they have not been freed because of the gravity of the charges against them. Dadkhah vowed to appeal against the verdicts.
In August, Mansouri's mother publicly accused the authorities of torturing the young men at Tehran's Evin prison in an effort to obtain confessions. The judiciary insists that torture is not used in Iran.


Amir Kabir University has long been a hotbed of student activism, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the target of heckling in a stormy address to the university last year. - AFP

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 20th, 2007 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Iran, Islam, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.