Tehran: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday described the poisoning of schoolgirls during the last few months as an unforgivable crime.
Speaking at a tree-planting ceremony at his office, Khamenei called for the most severe penalties to be imposed on those responsible, Reuters reported.
Khamenei’s statements come after new cases were recorded on March 5 in several regions, amid ambiguity surrounding the issue.
The first incident of mass poisoning was reported on November 30 last year. The illness which is so far unexplained has affected hundreds of students in recent months.
The Iranian authorities believe that these girls may have been poisoned and blame it on Tehran’s enemies.
Although there have been no casualties yet, the children have complained of headaches, heart palpitations and a feeling of lethargy.
Some described the symptoms as being unable to move, others smelled of tangerines, chlorine, or cleaning products.
This incident has happened in 100 schools and universities in 22 provinces— Qazvin, Golestan, Hormozgan, Hamedan, Zanjan, Qom, Lorestan, Tehran, Alborz, Kermanshah, Ardabil, Razavi Khorasan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Fars, Gilan, Isfahan, North Khorasan, Semnan, Mazandaran, Khuzestan and Ilam.
The poisoning incidents comes shortly after widespread protests that took place since September 2022 against the backdrop of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, days after she was detained by the morality police on charges of not adhering to the standards of compulsory headscarf.
