Leading members of an Iranian pro-reform student association started a sit-down protest outside parliament Sunday against the acquittal of 18 police officers who led an attack on students during pro-reform demonstrations last year, an AFP photographer saw.
"Our action will last a day and the purpose is to express the students' indignation" at the court's bias, one of the eight protestors from the Office of Unity and Consolidation, the principle political student association, told AFP.
Several MPs and reformist politicians on Wednesday expressed outrage following the acquittal Tuesday of Tehran's former police chief Farhad Nazari and 17 other police officers for last year's assault on a Tehran University dorm, in violation of interior ministry orders.
At least three students were killed and many others injured when students, who were protesting the closure of the reformist newspaper Salam, were attacked by the police, sparking several days of violent unrest, the worst since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Iran's Islamic Participation Front, the main reformist party in Iran, on Saturday accused the judiciary of meddling in political conflicts between reformers and conservatives.
"A system that is affected by outside power cannot act independently," said an open letter by the Front, which is run by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's brother, Mohammad-Reza Khatami and which won the February legislative elections.
The letter, addressed to judiciary head Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi, said the justice system was run by "invisible hands."
"We expect that you will assume your responsibilities before it's too late," said the letter - TEHRAN (AFP)
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