Protests in Qom following police brutality against cleric

GVF — Protests erupted in the holy city of Qom on Tuesday after police officers allegedly beat a young cleric, a conservative news website reported.

According to the Ahlulbayt news agency, on Tuesday “a group of clerics and youth” held protests in front of a police station in the city of Qom following police brutality against a seminary student. The cleric had reportedly not been carrying his motorcycle registration when the incident occurred.

“Astonishingly,” the news agency writes, the police officer “uses a baton against the student which led to head injuries.”

“All the onlookers admitted that the motorcyclist had acted against the law and did not have his document with him ... but tear gas and batons should not be the penalty for such offences,” the website states, while adding that protests were finally brought to an end after senior police officials had intervened.

Qom is considered to be Iran’s religious heartland. The city’s renowned seminary (Hawza) is home to thousands of clerics, scholars and students.

In an unprecedented move, the Ahlulbayt news agency warned Iranian authorities that a repeat of such incidents might trigger events similar to the recent revolution in Tunisia. “Let’s remember that the almost a year ago, a young man who had had enough of the police’s severe conduct, set himself on fire and inflamed the [entire] world.”

Massive protests were sparked in Tunisia in December 2010 where 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest the confiscation of his vegetable cart by a policewoman.