One has to wonder where it will all end. A country can arrest and harass as many of its citizens as it likes - in a dictatorship or police state not difficult! - but sooner or later in a country like Iran, something will give.
The NY Times reports in "Arrests by Iran Are a Bid to Quell Wide Protests" on the latest outrages in Iran:
"In recent weeks, security officials have unleashed an epidemic of arrests across Iran in an effort to neutralize the political opposition, silence critical voices and head off widespread protests when the nation observes the anniversary of the revolution on Thursday, Iran analysts inside and outside the country said.
Though the government has refrained from arresting the principal leaders of the opposition, the category of people it has pursued has grown broader over time.
While a number of well-known reformists were detained shortly after the contested presidential election last June, the ranks of those imprisoned now include artists, photographers, children’s rights advocates, women’s rights activists, students and scores of journalists. Iran now has more journalists in prison than any other country in the world, with at least 65 in custody, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Reports have filtered out from Iran of people being roused from their beds during midnight raids and disappearing into the penal system without an official word to family and friends, and of overcrowded jails and long stays in solitary confinement, according to human rights groups.
In what appeared to be a first, the Revolutionary Court summoned Tuesday the wife and children of an imprisoned journalist, Mohammad Nourizad, to appear as “political prisoners,” the official Web site of the opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, reported. This appeared to be connected to an open letter that Mr. Nourizad’s wife, Fatemeh Maleki, wrote recently to the people of Iran, said the site, called Kaleme.
Though the government does not report the numbers of those arrested, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a group based in New York, calculated that in the past two months at least 1,000 people have been imprisoned, many arrested under a blanket detention order issued in June that empowers the police to take anyone into custody for any reason."
The NY Times reports in "Arrests by Iran Are a Bid to Quell Wide Protests" on the latest outrages in Iran:
"In recent weeks, security officials have unleashed an epidemic of arrests across Iran in an effort to neutralize the political opposition, silence critical voices and head off widespread protests when the nation observes the anniversary of the revolution on Thursday, Iran analysts inside and outside the country said.
Though the government has refrained from arresting the principal leaders of the opposition, the category of people it has pursued has grown broader over time.
While a number of well-known reformists were detained shortly after the contested presidential election last June, the ranks of those imprisoned now include artists, photographers, children’s rights advocates, women’s rights activists, students and scores of journalists. Iran now has more journalists in prison than any other country in the world, with at least 65 in custody, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Reports have filtered out from Iran of people being roused from their beds during midnight raids and disappearing into the penal system without an official word to family and friends, and of overcrowded jails and long stays in solitary confinement, according to human rights groups.
In what appeared to be a first, the Revolutionary Court summoned Tuesday the wife and children of an imprisoned journalist, Mohammad Nourizad, to appear as “political prisoners,” the official Web site of the opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, reported. This appeared to be connected to an open letter that Mr. Nourizad’s wife, Fatemeh Maleki, wrote recently to the people of Iran, said the site, called Kaleme.
Though the government does not report the numbers of those arrested, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a group based in New York, calculated that in the past two months at least 1,000 people have been imprisoned, many arrested under a blanket detention order issued in June that empowers the police to take anyone into custody for any reason."
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