2009-06-28

the struggle in iran continues (pictures from sf demonstrations)

Pictures from demonstrations in San Francisco from Thursday and Friday (or scroll down below).

Protesters continued to clash with police as a power struggle continues among the ruling clergy. Mainstream news sources reported around 3,000 protesters outside the Ghoba mosque while according to twitter sources 3,000 wouldn't even fill the mosque and numbers were greater. I'll also note that I mentioned the power struggle among top clerics at least a week ago from twitter, while the mainstream is just now catching on. Staff from the British Embassy were arrested the other day and I have read that they have been tortured to give links between the UK and the protesters. In Sweden a group of protesters broke into the Iranian Embassy. There is still discussion of the general strike that is being organized and planned.

One of the people on Twitter I am following's friend was arrested among with other protesters and gives his first hand account.

Reza released from Hospital yesterday he is banned from university and now is a stared [marked by gov] student

he spent his first 48h of arrest at level -4 of ministry of interior building without food or water

he said all sort of people were there & some of them were just unlucky people just walking in streets and captured for no reason

Reza estimated around 200 people were in each room and there were not enough space to even sit on the ground

they didn't open the plastic handcuffs for a day & half, & randomly beat up people in there

Reza said the only exception was they didn't hit arrested people directly in the face

there was also a awful problem of only one toilet for all people in there and a impossible time limit of around 1min for each person

He said in the second day some pain cloth people came with papers forcing people to sign them

the papers were prewritten confessions all in different hand writings saying the signer is a member of organization by mousavi

and they paid to go to streets and say things & they know they have violated national security & Islam

Reza said some people sign them & some other just faked their signs & names, there were not enough confession papers for all people

around 3am day 2 they started moving people in vans, Reza said a driver was talking to a Basiji about Evin prison is full and what shoul ...

apparently they released some people on that night & move Reza & some of the selected people to Evin

Reza had no idea why they select some of the people and where they moved the others

it took near 3 hours to get to the prison, Reza said the driver seemed enjoys wandering in the streets

and another hour passed just standing in the row at the entrance of prison & filling out forms

in first day at Evin prison staff started searching for severely injured people & gave them some first aid

according to Reza some of the injured people already passed out and a taxi driver looked like dead by that time

all types of gov agents came & go in the next couple of days, moving people, forcing them to walk or just stand for a long time

Reza said it looked like they have no idea what should they do with so much people

a man came and say they will be released today and an hour later another came & say they will be in prison for 10year!

they ran another confession show at Evin, this time with promise of instant freedom & new accusations

Correction: *but with new accusations, not promising them!

in last days Reza said it looked they get a little more organized and start searching for any special case in arrested people

unfortunately Reza's mother told everything she knows over the phone to a man calling from Evin

the man promised Reza's family they will release him if he's really innocent

and after they knew Reza is a student they moved him to a more harsh environment with some other people

according to Reza some students from Polytechnic university were also there

they prevented them from sleeping by kept them standing all the night

in morning a man introduced him self as Intelligent came saying he will record their confections with camera

he promised if one of them confess in front of camera he will free them all & they will blur his face & nothing to worry!

at night around 10PM they Released Reza & his family instantly moved him to a hospital for internal bleeding

Reza had no idea why they suddenly released him & some of his inmates

I skipped some of the incidents as Reza requested. he's very weak both mentally & physically

and I don't want to put him in more pressure of any kind right now



Finally, here are pictures I took on Thursday and Friday from demonstrations in San Francisco. See more of my photos on Flickr.