IRAN: HUNDREDS DEMANDING STUDENT'S RELEASE TO GO ON HUNGER STRIKE

Hundreds of students, journalists and intellectuals have announced a 24-hour hunger strike on Friday to demand the release from jail of political prisoners including Ahmad Batebi, detained after the July 1999 students' protests. His father Bagher Batebi has also launched an appeal for the international public opinion demanding the release of his son which has been published by Amnesty International.Batebi was arrested in July 1999 after he became a symbol of the students' movement following the publication on the British-based Economist magazine's front page of a picture of him holding the bloodied shirt of a fellow student killed by police at a student rally. His wife Sommayah Batinat was arrested last week after disclosing to the international media, that her husband was still in detention despite his poor health. Plainclothes officials reportedly brought the woman to an undisclosed location . Batebi's parents have since Thursday morning also started a sit-in protest at Tehran's Daneshjoo( Students) park where they say they will remain until their son is freed. "For the past eight years I have been watching the famous picture of my son while waiting for his release and I have no intention to sit still," said Bagher Batebi in his appeal. "I ask the entire world to help us free Ahmad before he is handed back to us inside a coffin."