Iran Jailing Dissenters Ahead of Elections: Amnesty

Iranian authorities are cracking down on dissent in the run up to this week's parliamentary elections, Amnesty International claimed Tuesday.

According to the rights group, lawyers, teachers, students and journalists are all being arrested as the country prepares for elections on Friday.

In Iran today you put yourself at risk if you do anything that might fall outside the increasingly narrow confines of what the authorities deem socially or politically acceptable, said Ann Harrison, an Amnesty Middle East expert.

Anything from setting up a social group on the internet, forming or joining an NGO (non-governmental organization), or expressing your opposition to the status quo can land you in prison, she said in a statement.

Friday's election comes amid heightened global pressure on Iran to abandon its alleged nuclear weapons program.

It is also the first election since the 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The disputed result sparked eight months of civil unrest and a brutal response from government forces.

According to reports, Iranian authorities are particularly keen to police digital media, which is seen as a vital tool for organizing opposition against the current regime.

Last month a new team of cyber-police ordered internet café owners to install CCTV and register user IDs, Amnesty said.

In the run-up to the elections millions of Iranians have been experiencing disruption to their email and internet services, Reuters reported.

The agency added many were having problems with their Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, which are used to circumvent government filters.