"The breeze of modernism is blowing in our country, it is not wise for anyone to resist it", says an unprecedented open letter written to the leader by the General Council of Tehran Universities Students Organisations (GCTUSO) that also accuse Mr. Khameneh'i of having "masterminded" the "bundle closure" of reformists and independent publications.

"Newspapers are symbols of freedom of expression, but they were closed down on your orders. Why is that not a single document proving the evidence of the presence of the enemy among the press was provided?", the students asked Mr. Khameneh'i in their open letter.

"Once the leader said that, I went to the press court, asked to bring me the press, chose 12 of them as sample bases of the enemy and closed them", judge Abbas’ali Alizadeh, Head of Tehran Judiciary stated some times ago, explaining the reason behind the shutting down of more than 30 publications, most of them pro-reforms, and the imprisonment of a dozen of well-known journalists and editors.

The monthly "Kian", mouthpiece of Islamist philosopher and reformer Dr. Abdolkarim Sorush was the last victim of the Judiciary that closed it wednesday on charges of writing "against Islam and disturbing public opinion".

In the letter, the GCTUSO that is dominated by the pro-reform Office of Consolidating Unity (OCU), Iranian students largest political organisation, criticised the leader for his cult of personality, observing that the "smallest criticism of you entails expulsion from university and jai. Under such conditions, how can one ask for accountability from the rulers?" they noted.

The students expressed concern on the fate of Mr. Ali Afshari, an outspoken leader of the OCU condemned to five years jail for participation at the Berlin meeting the authorities have denounced as "a plot aimed at overthrowing" the Islamic regime of Iran.

In a letter to President Mohammad Khatami, 370 Iranian personalities of all walk but also international organisations such as Amnesty International and the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres have also expressed "extreme concern" about the situation of the two prisoners of conscience.

Fatigued of the conservatives systematic blocking of the reforms, frustrated and angered at the attacks and insults they are subject to from the Judiciary and the police, deceived by a President they were instrumental in his landslide victory in the May 1997 presidential elections and in whom they had placed their hopes for reforms to take off but to their despair and astonishment, constantly retreats under pressures from the leader, Iranian students have recently become more outspoken, demanding a referendum on the regime.

The verdicts were met by a barrage of protest from reformist personalities and organisations both inside and outside Iran as well as by some international human rights and Western nations.

The most abusive sentence was given to Mr. Akbar Ganji, the investigative journalist and writer who got ten years of imprisonment and five years exile to a remote village in southern Homozegan Province bordering the Persian Gulf.

Mrs. Mehranguiz Kar, a prominent secular lawyer and human rights activist who is suffering from breast cancer and needs urgent treatment abroad was sentenced to four years.

Calling on Mr. Khameneh'i to take a "firm instance" against hard line theologians who dominates the political, social, cultural life of the nation, the students urged him "not to allow" forces of oppression to use his name for repressing individual freedoms and silence students voices".

"You must take steps so that justice can return to the judiciary", the students demanded Mr. Khameneh'i who was also urged to allow free and open criticism of the state apparatus without the threat of imprisonment or other sanction.