Iran: First Arrests in Drugged Schoolgirls Case
Several people have been arrested and the investigation continues.
The mysterious case of poisoned schoolgirls provokes strong emotion in Iran, where parents of students have mobilized to call the authorities Act. (File photo)
Iran's Interior Ministry on Tuesday announced the first arrests in the investigation into the series of poisonings that have affected thousands of schoolgirls for three months.
Several people have been arrested in five provinces and the services are continuing their investigation, Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi told state television.
He did not give details of their identity, the circumstances of their arrest or their alleged involvement in this story.
This mysterious case provokes strong emotion in Iran, where parents of students have mobilized to call on the authorities to act.
In total , more than 5,000 students have been affected in some 230 schools located in 25 of the country's 31 provinces since the end of November, said on Tuesday Mohammad-Hassan Asafari, a member of the parliamentary commission of inquiry in charge of shed light on the causes of this wave of poisonings.
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Monday called for tough sentences against people who would be found guilty of the acts that led to the poisonings.
They must be sentenced to severe penalties and there will be no amnesty for them, warned the Iran's highest authority, who mentioned this case for the first time.
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