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GV EXT Church of St. Merri in Paris
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2.
MV INT Masked Iranians seated in church holding banners and chanting (4 shots)
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3.
MV EXT Sadegh Ghotzadeh making statement with overlays of demonstrators in church (5 shots)
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GHOTZADEH: "This hunger strike has been organised by the struggling religious people of Iran and the United Islamic Association of the Moslem students in Europe. This is a test against the oppressive political regime which exists in Iran as well as protest against the imprisonment of the great religious leaders as well as political leaders, political struggling people, who are in jail in Iran, the number being close to 100,000 persons from all categories of life and from all aspects of our social classes. They are from all different idealogies but most of them are Moslems and they are in jail and undergo tremendous torture which has been established by international organisations around the world. This hunger strike is to protest against the torture, against the imprisonment as well as against the political oppression of the regime in Iran."




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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Eighty Iranians have occupied a corner of the church of St. Merri in Paris to draw attention to cases of alleged torture in Iranian jails.

SYNOPSIS: Their sit-in coincided with the start of a seven-day hunger strike. Many of the protesters are Iranian students from universities in different parts of Europe. Several were in Paris specifically to take part in the protest. Among them also were a number of practising Moslems from Iran who entered Pa is as tourists. One of these, Sadegh Ghotzadeh, explains the reasons for their demonstration.