Iran will "show no mercy" towards opposition protesters seen as threatening national security, a judiciary official said yesterday, a day after thousands of students staged anti-government rallies.
A nationwide rally on Monday to mark the killing of three students under the Shah turned violent when students clashed with security forces armed with batons and tear gas in the largest anti-government protests in months.
Tehran's police chief said 204 protesters were arrested in widespread anti-government marches by university students. Gen. Azizullah Rajabzadeh says the protesters - including 39 women - were detained in the capital during Monday's rallies for violating public order, according to the state news agency IRNA. He says they will be handed over to the judiciary after police investigation.
Tens of thousands of protesters marched in more than a dozen universities across the country and in the streets of the capital. Inside the walled campus of Teheran University on Monday, fistfights broke out between protesters and conservative students loyal to the government.
A government crackdown ended gigantic protests by hundreds of thousands that erupted immediately after June's disputed presidential elections, which the opposition says Ahmadinejad won by fraud. Since the summer, the opposition has been able to hold only about one protest a month, all far smaller than the ones in June and July.
(中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑)
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Lee Hannon is Chief Editor at China Daily with 15-years experience in print and broadcast journalism. Born in England, Lee has traveled extensively around the world as a journalist including four years as a senior editor in Los Angeles. He now lives in Beijing and is happy to move to China and join the China Daily team.