According to reports, at the beginning of the new academic year, new rulings for expulsion and suspension from university were issued for students at Abadan Oil Industry University.
As reported by Amirkabir Newsletter, with the return of Gholamreza Rasheed, the president of Abadan Oil Industry University, from his trip abroad, a disciplinary committee meeting was held with his attendance. Rasheed, who was appointed with the support of the Basij, chaired the university. In the appeal meeting, an illegal move was made to prevent the presence of a representative of the leadership, who holds relatively moderate positions, to facilitate the issuing of harsh rulings.
During this meeting, severe rulings were issued for six students as follows:
1. Mostafa Ahukhush, an activist of the Islamic Student Association, suspended for one semester and deprived of university facilities for the remainder of his studies.
2. Payam Pekari, expelled from the university.
3. Khosrow Mousavand, prohibited from receiving his degree.
4. Hojjat Arabi, suspended for one semester.
5. Sahand Bakhtiarpour, suspended for one semester (initial ruling).
6. Amin Nikzadeh, suspended for two semesters (initial ruling).
These rulings were issued despite the fact that the 2020-2021 academic year has ended, and with the start of the new academic year, these rulings, which pertain to the previous semester, have been annulled.
The university president also emphasized during the appeal meeting that any lighter rulings should be torn up, and he stressed the imposition of the harshest punishments for student activists.
Previously, in August, in an unusual move, the university gates were closed by security, and any student attempting to leave was severely searched. After leaving through the main gate, active students were arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence, with Hossein Rahimi and Nikzadeh detained in this manner. When intelligence officers realized that the active students were not leaving the university, they collaborated with security to summon them to the security office in the middle of the night. During this time, five other students—Sajad Taherzadeh, Mostafa Monfared, Hassan Karimi, Sahand Bakhtiarpour, and Payam Pekari—were illegally arrested. One of the activists, Mousavand, managed to leave the university secretly.
The authorities claimed that the main reason for the students’ arrest was the intentional arson of a Basij vehicle, which had caught fire under suspicious circumstances overnight. This incident served as a pretext for the arrests. According to Amirkabir Newsletter, with the cooperation of the Tehran IRGC, in early August, Mousavand’s father was taken hostage in Tehran’s bazaar to pressure Mousavand into surrendering. The arrests ended with Mousavand’s detention.
After days of detention, the students were released on bail and surety.
At the time, in addition to the arrests, Mostafa Ahukhush and Saeed Shojaei Zadeh were also summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence.
