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Iranian Student Demonstrators Freed
TEHRAN, July 29 (IslamOnline & news Agencies) - The Iranian judiciary has released all the people arrested earlier this month during a demonstration to mark a police raid on a student dormitory which triggered widespread unrest, news agencies reported.
All 87 people, including 24 students and six women, arrested in Tehran July 11 by police during the demonstrations on the second anniversary of a violent police raid on a university dormitory have been released, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.
Ali Ta'ali, who is in charge of security affairs in Tehran governor-general's office, said: "[A total of] 28 have been acquitted and 59 others released on bail," IRNA said.
"The 87 people who were arrested and jailed for taking part in the illegal gathering in front of the Tehran university, have been released," said Ta'ala, quoted by the government-run daily 'Iran', the French news agency AFP reported.
Ta'ali had earlier said that some of the detainees were dispatching reports abroad, including England, from the site of the demonstrations on their cell phones, IRNA reported.
On July 11, riot police was out in force outside Tehran University, a hotbed of student protests, to prevent any rallies from taking place.
Authorities had banned all rallies this year, after last year's demonstrations turned violent with clashes between protesting students and hard-line vigilantes.
But, a peaceful commemoration ceremony inside the university dormitory in Tehran's western Amir Abad area was allowed to take place.
The pro-reform students had planned it to be a "No to Violence campaign" which was instead marked by the presence of dozens of riot police in buses.
Between 700 and 800 people gathered inside the Tehran university dormitory complex in the western Amir-Abad district, the scene of the violent police crackdown two years ago, where members of the reformist movement made speeches condemning violence against students, IRNA reported.
The whole saga started when a group of people (some of whom are not yet identified), entered a Tehran University hostel in downtown city and beat up students who were protesting the closure of a pro-reform newspaper.
The incident engulfed Tehran in days of clashes in July 1999, during which one person was killed and several others injured.
A court was formed later and several police officers, including the police chief at the time, were brought to the dock for illegal entry into the campus, but many of them were exonerated.
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