Iranian police arrested more than 250 people, including two Arab diplomats, in a crackdown on New Year's Eve celebrations, according to witnesses yesterday. A group of well-dressed Iranians, many with luxury cars, gathered outside the Guidance Judicial Complex searching for news of loved ones seized in New Year raids by members of the Islamic Basij militia.
A police official said those arrested, mostly young Iranians from the well-off districts of north Tehran, had been charged with mingling with the opposite sex and consuming alcohol - both barred in the Islamic Republic.
He said the judge had gone to the main Evin prison to hear the cases in an effort to speed up the proceedings.
Family members and some of those detained said the accused, from two separate parties, had either paid hefty fines or received lashes before being released.
Some had been forced to sign pledges to avoid future parties. Many others, however, were still being held.
Some of those released said two Arab diplomats, a Bahraini and a Kuwaiti, were among those detained. The Doran-e Emrouz newspaper put the total at 262, including the diplomats, two Britons and two Indian nationals.
One young woman, who evaded police by hiding for more than four hours under the kitchen sink of an central Tehran villa, said the authorities had arrived at 12:30 a.m., just as the party was getting into full swing.
"The host turned off the music and announced there were two police buses outside. He told everyone not to try to escape," the woman, who declined to give her name, said. "They haven't done this for such a long time that everyone thought it was OK. Now, everyone is scared. If this carries on, most of these people will leave the country."
Despite the strict rules, Western-style parties in wealthy Tehran neighbourhoods are a nightly occurrence, but in recent years they have rarely been raided by police or Basij volunteers.
AFP adds: The governor of the Nigerian state which has sentenced a 17 year-old-girl to 180 lashes for engaging in pre-marital sex said yesterday the punishment would be carried out. Governor Ahmed Sani of Zamfara State said recent media reports that he was under pressure from the federal government not to allow the sentence to go ahead were false.