Iran arrested several people it said were linked to a wave of school poisonings and accused some of connections to “foreign-based dissident media” and recent riots, according to an Interior Ministry statement shared by state media on Tuesday.
Over 1,000 girls have fallen ill after being poisoned since November, according to state media and officials, with some politicians blaming religious groups opposed to girls’ education.
“Three members of a team of four people arrested have a history of being involved in recent riots and their connection to foreign-based dissident media has been ascertained,” the statement said without elaborating.
The statement added that authorities arrested several people in six provinces in relation to school poisoning.
On Monday, Iran’s supreme leader said that poisoning schoolgirls was an “unforgivable” crime that should be punished by death if deliberate, amid public anger over a wave of suspected attacks in schools.
The Interior Ministry said one of the arrested individuals had transferred irritants to a school through their own child and shared footage of the aftermath with what the government called “hostile media.”
The poisonings have come at a critical time for Iran’s clerical rulers after a security crackdown mostly quelled a three-month nationwide protest movement sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died on September 16 while in police custody for flouting hijab rules.
It was earlier reported that, On Monday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called the suspected poisonings an “unforgivable crime,” calling for “severe punishment” for anyone found responsible. As of last Wednesday, no one had been arrested in connection with the incidents, according to Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi.
“This is a big and unforgivable crime. If it is proven that the students were poisoned, the perpetrators of this crime should be severely punished. There will be no amnesty for these people,” Khamenei said on the sidelines of a tree-planting event in Tehran, according to official news agency IRNA.
In a statement carried by the state-aligned Tasnim news agency on Saturday, Vahidi said “suspicious substances” had been identified in connection with the incidents.
“During field investigations by the relevant bodies, suspicious samples have been found, which are being examined at laboratories in order to identify the causes of complications in students,” Vahidi said.
“Results will be announced as soon as possible by the Ministry of Health,” he added.
Vahidi also emphasized that the government’s main priority is the health of students, according to Tasnim.
Speculation has swirled among Iranian lawmakers as the spate of suspected attacks dominates headlines. On Friday, Iran’s hardline President Ebrahim Raisi blamed the incident on “enemies of Iran” who, he said, aimed to stoke unrest in the country.
“Recently, the enemies who have been orchestrating and waging media and psychological warfare in Iran seek to weaken Iran’s security hoping to create an atmosphere of despair by fomenting insecurity and apprehension in the Iranian society,” Raisi said in a statement about the suspected poisoning attacks.
Raisi did not directly specify who the “enemies” were, although Tehran habitually accuses the United States and Israel of acting against it.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Friday criticized Western governments for “shedding crocodile tears” over the poisonings.
