Sunday, November 12, 2006

Latest on Batebi

After the missed opportunity to save Ahmad Batebi by the St.Andrews Association who were unwilling to take a single step in solidarity with a jailed fellow student, the suffering of Ahmad Batebi and his family continues.

Batebi was shortly allowed 48 hours leave from prison before Khatami received an honorary PHD from St. Andrews. Ahmad Batebi's family had to come up with property title deeds worth more than £100K as bail money for his brief leave from prison. Yet after Batebi's return to prison, he is still kept in solitary confinement and his demands to be transferred to section 305 of Evin prison along with other political prisoners has been ignored. The authorities have also refused to release the bail money put up by Batebi's family, despite his return to prison.

Batebi's wife, Somayeh Beinat, has also been threatened with imprisonment if she continues to talk publicly about her husband's situation.

History will remember a spineless St. Andrews Association President, Tom D'Ardenne, who refused to stand up for a student colleague serving 15 years jail for lifting a bloody T-shirt of a comrade in a rally during Khatami's presidency. Instead the president who endorsed the arrest of 2000 students in one day got an honorary PHD from St. Andrews university with the full backing of the university association.

No comments: