Iranians protest over UK police 'savagery' in riots

15 Aug, 2011

Some 200 students held a demonstration outside the British embassy in Tehran on Sunday to protest at what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the "savage" police treatment of people involved in street unrest in London last week.
Watched by around 50 riot police, some students threw eggs towards the embassy compound and at the end of the protest they held up masks of Mark Duggan, the man whose shooting by police sparked the protests and riots in Britain.
Some protesters carried anti-British placards. One read: "London 2011, Tehran 1979, throw off your shah!" a reference to Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution which overthrew a Western-backed king.
For many years Iran has been on the receiving end of criticism from Western countries over its human rights record, especially the crushing of demonstrations after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009.

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