( AFP ) - A group of about 100 Iranian students at the country's top university in Tehran staged a noisy protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday shortly before he gave a speech there.
"Ahmadinejad is Pinochet! Iran will not become Chile," the students chanted, referring to the late dictator Augusto Pinochet, a witness said, adding that they were blocked from leaving the campus by anti-riot police.
The demonstrators at Tehran University, Iran's top academic institution, were calling for the release of jailed students, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
The students were also confronted by a rival group of supporters of the hardline president who carried a banner saying "Shame on you hypocrite! Leave the university!"
Last December, a speech by Ahmadinejad at another university in Tehran was disrupted by demonstrators protesting against a crackdown on student activist in the university.