Babak Zamanian

Around the Clock is a special page of the Ekbatan Observer devoted to monitoring and analysing the human rights situation in Iran.


Babak Zamanian is a 23 year old mining student and spokesman of the Muslim Students Association at Tehran polytechnic Amir Kabir university. He was amongst students who heckled Ahmadinejad when he visited the Amir Kabir university in December 2006 and shouted "Death to dictatorship and dictator go away". In April 2007 he was arrested for demonstrating in a small group in front of the university dormitories. He was thrown in Evin prison and kept in isolation in the notorious section 209 (reserved for political prisoners) and tortured. He was subsequently freed on bail (after 40 days I think). During his freedom he has talked to some foreign radios and given interviews to the international media. This has made the case against him even harder. He has even been accused of having contact with a member of Dick Cheney's family.

The government is trying to stifle any opposition voices especially anti-Ahmadinejad's voices within universities and therefore the judiciary has passed a two year sentence against Zamanian and re-arrested him. There are numerous other students who suffer from the same fate. His situation is particularly worrisome and needs special attention.