TEHRAN The last group of students held in connection with the riots in July 1999 in the northwestern city of Tabriz were released Tuesday following an amnesty by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Seyed Ali Khamenei, the Iran Students News Agency (ISNA) said.
The agency identified those released as Ali Bikas, a history student, Ali Mehri, the founder of an independent student group and three other people, Iraj Taqizadeh, Hassan Azarpour and Younes Shabouli, said to be not students.
According to ISNA, the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tabriz had originally passed sentences of six and five years of imprisonment on Mehri and Bikas which were subsequently reduced to three and two years respectively on appeals filed by them.
Tabriz University was engulfed in riots on July 10 last year, following clashes between plainclothesmen and students at the Tehran University dormitory in which one soldier was killed and couple were injured.
Another seminary student was shot dead in Tabriz.
The clashes erupted after plainclothes groups stormed university campuses and beat up students who had gathered to protest the closure of a reformist newspaper, Salam.
(IRNA)