A hundred people have been arrested in Iran as part of the investigation into the mysterious case of poisoning in girls’ schools, which has aroused strong emotion in the country, the interior ministry said in a statement relayed Sunday, March 12 by the official IRNA news agency.
“More than 100 people suspected of being responsible for the incidents in the schools have been identified, arrested and interrogated,” said the statement, which specifies that the arrests took place in several provinces, including those of Tehran and Qom in the North, Eastern and Western Azerbaijan in the Northwest, and those of Kurdistan and Hamadan in the West.
Some suspects aimed to “instill a climate of fear among students and close schools”, he continued, citing “possible links with terrorist organizations” such as the People’s Mojahedin (MEK). “Fortunately, since the middle of last week, the number of incidents has decreased significantly” and there have “not been any new cases of sick students,” the ministry adds.
Over 5,000 cases listed
Since the beginning of the case, at the end of November, the pupils of many establishments, mostly girls’ schools, have been affected by sudden poisoning by gases or toxic substances which have caused faintness and fainting sometimes leading to hospitalizations.
Authorities have counted “more than 5,000” in “some 230 schools” located in twenty-five of the country’s thirty-one provinces. Faced with the multiplication of cases, parents of students and residents had mobilized to express their concern and call on the authorities to act. On March 6, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for “severe sentences”, including the death penalty, for those responsible for the poisonings, which he called “unforgivable crimes”.
The case began two months after the start of the protest movement which followed the death in custody, on September 16, of Mahsa Amini, a young woman arrested by the morality police who accused her of having violated the imposing dress code. especially the wearing of the veil.
