Iran ups repression of dissent ahead of vote: Amnesty International
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Iran is holding Friday a parliamentary election, its first national poll since the controversial 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Reuters)
By AFP
NICOSIA
Iran has escalated its crackdown on freedom of expression ahead of this week’s parliamentary election, Amnesty International said in a report published on Tuesday.
“In Iran today you put yourself at risk if you do anything that might fall outside the increasingly narrow confines of what the authorities deem socially or politically acceptable,” said Ann Harrison, interim deputy director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program.
“Anything from setting up a social group on the Internet, forming or joining a NGO, or expressing your opposition to the status quo can land you in prison,” she said.
The report entitled “We are ordered to crush you: Expanding Repression of Dissent in Iran” details repressive acts by the Iranian authorities since February 2011, including a wave of arrests.
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