Radio Zamaneh | June 20, 2010

Eight Iranian university students were arrested charged with “propaganda against the Prophet Mohammad, planning disturbances, promoting monarchy, promoting atheism and disseminating misleading CDs.”

Shiraz Intelligence arrested the Open University students who are members of an Association for the publication National Development and were planning to hold a seminar ten days ago.

The students were arrested in the process of planning this seminar and are currently at the detention facilities of Shiraz Intelligence office.

Majid Razmjou, attorney for the students told RAHANA that the National Development Association has a valid permit and the students had gone through all legal channels and permits to organize their seminar.

Reportedly more students have been arrested in connection with this case and the actual number of detainees is still not confirmed.

The attorney for the detainees maintains that he has been impeded from visiting his clients with the excuse that the judiciary is still at the stage of investigations and he is not even allowed to see their files.

The National Development publication was supposed to launch its first publication beginning of this month; however, intelligence authorities stopped the launch.

The publication had gone through all the legal procedures and state news agency, IRNA had even reported the launch of the publication.

Read more related articles ...

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Dave Siavashi is a new media journalist, blogger, technologist, editor and founder of Iran News Now. A pioneer in live-blog reporting on the Mideast and breaking news, his work has been quoted in multiple news publications and he is regularly tweeted and retweeted by the journalists of the Twitterverse. He writes for Iran News Now and EA Wordview.

Feature: Instagrams from Iran (picture compilation)

A few pictures from Iran, taken by ordinary people and posted to Instagram

Iran Feature: Former Detainee Sarah Shourd “The Plight of Iranians and 3 Decades of US Foreign Policy”

The incredible thing for me was that so many Iranians worldwide took the time to care about us despite the thousands of other political prisoners they have to worry about. “I’m an Iranian boy ashamed for what our government did to three American hikers,” another message on Facebook says. “I want you to know Iranian people are with you and against their own government. Iran’s regime is not chosen by Iranian people. They kill and torture us and we are all in a very big prison named Iran.”

Iran Feature: The Supreme Leader Is Worried — Three Developments You Probably Don’t Know

Our partner, EAWorldView, has published a ground-breaking piece on Iran’s Supreme Leader. This is a must-read.

Live-blog: Russia, what’s next?

Journalist Mona Eltahawy’s harrowing ordeal – beating, sexual assault and arrest in Egypt – in her own words and tweets

“The past 12 hrs were painful and surreal but I know I got off much much easier than so many other Egyptians.”

Must Watch – The Stream – “Parazit: Voice of America or voice of the people?” – Two tweets from Iran News Now featured

This is a must watch show. Watch it and let us know what you think. The show raised many interesting [...]