The Iranian authorities announced the arrest of more than 100 people as part of an investigation into a series of poisonings of thousands of schoolgirls that sparked outrage in the country.
In a statement published by the official IRNA news agency, the Interior Ministry said that more than 100 suspects were arrested for their involvement in the recent school accidents.
The ministry did not give details about the people who were arrested in several governorates, including in Tehran and Qom (north), East and West Azerbaijan (northwest), and the provinces of Kurdistan and Hamadan (west).
Among those arrested, the ministry said, were “individuals who have had hostile motives, tried to trigger fear and horror among people and students, shut down schools, and created pessimism toward” the Iranian government.
They would remain “under investigation until required assurances are achieved,” the statement added, noting that the number of poisoning cases at girls’ schools across the country had been decreasing “over the past several days.”
The statement pointed at possible links to the Iranian opposition group that Tehran considers a “terrorist” organization, the People's Mujahedin of Iran or Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK).
Shahin Gobadi, Paris-based spokesman for the MEK, told AFP that the accusations were “a ridiculous show to cover up the role of the institutions under Khamenei’s command in this big crime” and urged Tehran to accept an international investigation.
“The crime of poisoning thousands of schoolgirls... is the work of no one but the clerical regime and its security and repressive apparatus,” he said in a statement to AFP.
This is the second statement issued by the authorities in a week. On Tuesday, Iran announced arrests in 5 governorates. Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi accused “the perpetrators of the girls’ poisoning” of wanting to “close schools” and “blame the system” in order to “revive dormant riots”.
