Two Years After Violent Attack On Tehran University, None Of The Perpetrators Have Been Prosecuted But Students Have Been.

It has now been two years since Tehran University was attacked days after the rigged presidential election in 2009. To this date the authorities have not issued any report as to who the attackers were and who ordered the attack.

No one has been held accountable for that attack on Tehran University which resulted in student deaths, injuries and arrests.

Following is an excerpt of an article on Daneshjoo News recounting the attack and it’s aftermath:

In the days after the election, the shock and anger caused by the fraudulent outcome of the election, in addition to street protests, protests were also formed in Tehran university dormitories.

June 14, 2009 at about 11 PM, Tehran University was surrounded by police, security and plainclothes forces. These forces tried several times to enter the university but failed as they were met with resistance from the students.

The forces were finally able to enter the university by launching an attack with sound grenades, teargas and firing guns into the ground.

Plainclothes forces and Ansare Hezbollah brutally attacked the students using knives, guns, teargas, chains, batons and bats resulting in deaths and injuries of many students.

According to student sources and eyewitnesses 3-5 students were killed and about 100 students were arrested.

According to some of the student’s news sources, killed that night were; Mobina Ehterami, Fatemeh Barati, Kasra Sharafi, Kambiz Shojaei and Mohsen Imani. Witnesses say these students were killed as a result of multiple strikes to the head by electric batons.

It has been reported by student sources that the bodies of the killed students were buried in Beheshte Zahra (Tehran cemetery) the next day without the knowledge of their families. Families of these students were warned not to hold any memorial services or talk abut their children’s deaths.

In the early morning hours of June 15, the arrested students were taken to the Interior Ministry’s basement by plainclothes forces who were armed with firearms and knives. A number of these students had sustained injuries during the attack.

According to eyewitnesses, the students were beaten on the way to the Interior Ministry and once in the Interior Ministry’s basement, they were further severely and violently beaten and tortured.

According to eyewitnesses treatment of the arrested students was brutal and degrading.

Metal boxes were placed on student’s heads and batons were beaten on the metal boxes. One of the students had severe head injury and broken skull already.

After twelve hours in the basement with no food or water, a man came in with a small pitcher of water in his hand. He poured the water down on the floor and told the students they now could drink the water he was pouring out.

After some of the students complained about the method they were using to give them water, another man came in with a water hose and told the students they can drink from the water hose. It was hot water.

Students were fed by putting food in their hands. They fed the students spaghetti placed in their hands and told them if any of it falls to the ground they’d be punished. In some cases it did and the students were beaten.

For breakfast they fed the students dried bread and cheese using the same method. If any thing fell on the floor the student was beaten. It was hard to prevent the dry bread from crumbling and falling on the floor. It did happen and students were beaten.

Immediately after the reports of student deaths came out, authorities denied any deaths in the Tehran university attack.

However, Advare Tahkim Vahdat (The Alumni Association) issued a statement on June 13 that said 7 students were killed in the attacks on Tehran and Shiraz Universities .

In their statement, Advare Tahkim Vahdat also mentioned attacks on Shiraz University and Esfahan Sanati University dormitories by plainclothes, Basij and Ansare Hezbollah forces, resulting in 2 student deaths in Shiraz University.

After the violence in Shiraz University, Chancellor Mohamad Hadi Sadeghi resigned his position but no reason was given for his resignation.

It is against the law for military forces or police to enter the university campuses or dormitories unless requested by the university Chancellor.

At the time, Member of Parliament Mohsen Kouhkan said the forces entered Tehran University at the request of Tehran University Chancellor Farhad Rahbar.

Farhad Rahbar denied he had requested the forces to enter the university and said none of the university officials were present on the night of the attack.

3 weeks after the attack, the Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohamad Ali Jafari in an interview said “A special task force has been formed to investigate this case and most probably by end of next month the culprits will be put on trial”.

March 2010 BBC Persian broadcast a video they claimed was made by one of the attack forces (one of the plainclothes forces).

The person started the video at 1:30 am just before the actual attack happened. It shows the clashes between students and attackers on both sides of the iron fence. It shows the forces throwing teargas inside, and students on the roof top throwing stones at the attackers and attackers throwing the stones back at them.

At 2:00 AM the plainclothes forces entered the university with the help from the special units forces. In the video you can hear the plainclothes asking the guards to refrain from beating the students, you can see injured students lying on the ground and you can see the bloody face of a student.

Six days after this video was broadcast on many different outlets, MP’s Alaedin Broujerdi and Kazem Jalali of Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said they had not seen this video but what was depicted in this video should be followed up and investigated. MP Broujerdi later said this video could be a fake and altered.

4 months later, Commander of Iran Police Force Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghadam authenticated the scenes in the video but said it had voice-over in favor of the plainclothes and hurting the police.

Today nearly two years after this traumatic and horrible attack on these students it is still not clear who ordered such a brutal attack on the children of our nation. While none of the perpetrators of this violent crime have been prosecuted, one hundred students were summoned by the Disciplinary Committee and given disciplinary action. Innocent students were tried in military courts and sentenced to, prison, fines and flogging.

This horrible incident, just like the many atrocities of the Islamic Republic, has fallen victim to the passing of the time. History will judge this incident and will reveal it’s dark secrets.

Source: Daneshju News
Watch the BBC video on YouTube
More videos of the attack on Tehran university, June 2009
Watch alsoThe aftermath of the attack