The Crackdown on Iranian Student Activists

A brutally frank account of the regime's thugs unleashed against student activists, via the Guardian:

One afternoon early in May this year, a Kafkaesque drama unfolded in the normally placid east Tehran suburb of Seyed Khandan Bridge. Four burly men in plain clothes entered a block of flats, telling residents that they were police officers pursuing an armed robber. They went to the first-floor flat of Shamsolmoluk Tajik and banged on the door, forcing their way in by violently barging her aside when she answered. They were looking for her nephew Ehsan Mansouri, who often stayed with her. They ransacked the house and scoured the cellars, but Mansouri was not there. So the men left with Tajik, who was by this time screaming hysterically to attract her neighbours' attention.

They pushed the terrified woman into a waiting car and drove away, but stopped when they spotted their quarry, Mansouri, walking along the street. Seeing the men jumping from the car, Mansouri tried to make a run for it. A gunshot rang out, prompting the fleeing man to look back and see one of his pursuers training his gun on him. Fearing he was going to be shot, Mansouri decided to surrender and lay on the ground. Seconds later, the chasing pack pounced and started beating him mercilessly around the head and neck with rubber batons.

Releasing Tajik, the gang handcuffed Mansouri, bundled him into the back of the car and continued assaulting him. They took him to Evin prison, a sprawling and intimidating facility in northwest Tehran. When they arrived, Mansouri was bleeding so profusely that prison authorities refused to admit him. They eventually relented only on the condition that Mansouri would be examined by a doctor, who would then submit a document listing his injuries to those who had delivered him for their signatures.

The incident showed how ruthless Iran's security forces could be in pursuit of a wanted man. But Mansouri was no armed robber. He was a 22-year-old mathematics student at Amirkabir University, one of Iran's most prestigious seats of higher learning. What had he done to be hunted down so brutally and subjected to such a fearful battering?

For the answer, you have to read the whole story.

Comments

[rric]

Watching Webber on the Tracker get closer and closer to lapping Vettel in the opening laps was great

[dr dre beats headphones]

Or maybe they'll request Everyday is Like Sunday: "Come, come, nuclear bomb..."