About a dozen young protesters today gained access to some parts of the Iranian Embassy in The Hague.
The activists -- who reportedly included Iranian and Dutch nationals -- said they were “occupying” the embassy to protest against human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic and to show solidarity with the Iranian people.
But a spokeswoman for The Hague police department was quoted by the Tehran Bureau, an independent partner of U.S. broadcaster PBS, as saying that “occupied” was too strong a word for the protest action. She said that at around 2:30 a.m. local time, 10 people managed to climb the fence surrounding the Iranian Embassy and lowered the Iranian flag. Eight of them, she said, climbed on top of the roof of a shed inside the compound.
A video on YouTube shows the demonstrators on the embassy grounds displaying a white flag with the word “azadi,” or freedom.
-- Golnaz Esfandiari
The activists -- who reportedly included Iranian and Dutch nationals -- said they were “occupying” the embassy to protest against human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic and to show solidarity with the Iranian people.
But a spokeswoman for The Hague police department was quoted by the Tehran Bureau, an independent partner of U.S. broadcaster PBS, as saying that “occupied” was too strong a word for the protest action. She said that at around 2:30 a.m. local time, 10 people managed to climb the fence surrounding the Iranian Embassy and lowered the Iranian flag. Eight of them, she said, climbed on top of the roof of a shed inside the compound.
A video on YouTube shows the demonstrators on the embassy grounds displaying a white flag with the word “azadi,” or freedom.
-- Golnaz Esfandiari