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Iran summons French ambassador over policing of school protests: AFP
Note: AI technology was used to generate this article’s audio.
- The protests began in late September over dilapidated buildings, teacher shortages and overcrowding.
Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned France's ambassador to Tehran, Pierre Cochard, on Tuesday to protest how French police have handled student demonstrations over school conditions, AFP reported, citing Iranian state media.
Tehran accused Paris of "violent treatment" of the protesters and of widespread, blatant human rights abuses.
Iran's English-language Press TV said the envoy was received by Hamid Ahmadi, the ministry's acting human rights director-general. By that account, Ahmadi reminded France of its treaty obligations, asked it to look into allegations of excessive force and to create an independent body to review violations of protesters' rights, and voiced concern over reports that officers had gone into school buildings and classrooms.
The protests
The protests began in late September over dilapidated buildings, teacher shortages and overcrowding. AFP reported that over 500 of France's roughly 3,700 lycées were fully or partly shut on Monday, Oct. 5, and that more than 200 students had been hurt.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on TF1 last Friday that arrests had passed 5,000 since the start of the week, about 85 percent of them minors, according to dpa. He has described the police response as proportionate. Amnesty International France has accused police of excessive force against minors.
Two cases have drawn attention. A teenager aged 15 lost a hand in Lens on Monday after lifting a police grenade that then went off, a police union source told AFP, though that account is unverified. In addition, on Tuesday, a local prosecutor said an officer had been charged with violence over a tear gas grenade fired from short range at a 14-year-old identified as Eden, who lost most of his teeth. The officer was placed under judicial control and barred from working.
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