By Nazanin Kamdar

Source:

March 2, 2010

Finally, a week after the public release of an 18-minute video clip showing special police guards and plain-clothes Basij vigilantes and Islamic Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) agents attacking and rounding up students at Tehran University dormitories, two Majlis assembly lawmakers responded to the video clip by saying, “We haven’t watched the clip.”

According to state-run media reports, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, who heads the Majlis national security and foreign policy committee, is the highest-ranking official who has reacted to the video of the police and plain-clothes agents on the Tehran University dormitories on midnight of June 15.

According to ISNA student news agency, this official told parliamentary reporters, “I haven’t watched the distributed clip.”

Boroujerdi, however, spoke about the “fabrication” of the clip, adding, “The easiest task in the art of filmmaking is fabricating a film to satisfy the demands of producers.”

According to one parliamentary reporter present at the session, Boroujerdi refrained from naming the police and Basij forces as perpetrators of the attack, and said in response to questions from reporters only that “BBC cannot be trusted but we will investigate the clip anyway” before exiting the room.

This reporter, who did not disclosed his identity, also revealed that several hardline lawmakers affiliated with the administration, including Mehdi Kouchakzadeh, harassed the reporters and insulted them for asking questions about the role of the police in the attack.

The 18-minute clip clearly shows a large team of policemen present at the dormitory while references to Azizollah Rajabzadeh, the commander directing the attack, can be clearly heard in the movie.

Parliamentary reporters continued to ask questions of Kazem Jalali, spokesperson for the national security and foreign policy committee.  He too claimed not to have watched the clip.

He said, “I haven’t watched the clip but I think it’s better if a committee headed by Mr. Abutorabi [vice-speaker] watches the clip and prepares and presents a report to the officials on the issue of the attack on students and the dormitories, which is a concern for the supreme leader and the regime’s officials.”

Jalali meanwhile revealed that the investigative committee’s report was never presented in writing and was only delivered orally.

Jalali revealed that the investigative committee’s report was delivered orally while the members of the committee have repeatedly claimed to have identified what they referred to as the “rogue elements responsible for the dormitory attack.”