Iranian protesters arrested

POLICE YESTERDAY arrested three Iranian protesters who were threatening to set themselves alight outside the French embassy in Nicosia. The activists – two men and a woman holding her seven-year-old child – were expressing their opposition to last week’s crackdown in Paris which saw the arrest of arrest of 160 members of an Iranian opposition group.

Fire Service trucks were deployed to the scene and the area was cordoned off by the police. Police persuaded the woman to let go of her child and it was taken away from the scene.

Fire Service Spokesman Stelios Stylianou told reporters all the necessary steps were taken to prevent the protestors from being seriously injured.

“We had foam ready because the protesters were holding a canister of petrol and we had already soaked fireproof blankets with water in case they went ahead with their threats,” Stylianou said.

A police psychologist spoke to the demonstrators and they agreed to call off their protest as long as they were allowed to speak to the media.

But when the police agreed and the men started walking towards the cameras, the female protester doused one of the men in petrol and attempted to set him on fire, only to be stopped by the police.

A scuffle broke out between the group and the police and the Iranians ran towards the US embassy only to be arrested shortly afterwards by the police.

There have been similar demonstrations in Paris London and Rome, which resulted in the death of a 38-year-old woman, who died in hospital from injuries she sustained after setting herself on fire. The Among those held was Maryam Rajavi, the wife of Mujahideen founder Massoud Rajavi, who is the head of the exile umbrella group the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

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