Woman arrested in Iran for sending photos of poisoned students to 'hostile media'

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

TEHRAN, Iran (AA) – A woman has been arrested in central Iran's Qazvin city for allegedly taking photos and videos of poisoned schoolgirls and sending them to foreign "hostile media."

In a statement on Thursday, published in local media, the prosecutor general in Qazvin said the arrested woman was responsible for "publishing and sending pictures" of students recently poisoned in the city to "hostile media" based abroad.

The mysterious poisoning of schoolgirls in different cities in Iran in recent months has sent ripples of shock across the country.

The first cases of these serial poisonings were reported last November in central Iran's Qom city when dozens of schoolgirls were hospitalized for nausea, headache, breathing difficulties, cough, and body pain.

From Qom, the wave spread to other cities, including the capital Tehran, with more than 1,200 schoolgirls admitted to hospitals for poisoning-related symptoms countywide. Some reports put the figure even higher.

Earlier this month, a fresh wave of serial poisonings was reported in at least three Iranian cities, with dozens of schoolgirls transferred to hospitals, reports said.

Commenting on the woman's arrest, whose identity has not been disclosed, the prosecutor's office in Qazvin said images of girls at one of the schools in the city had appeared in "hostile media," referring to the Persian-language media based in the US and UK.

It said the CCTV camera footage at one of the hospitals was examined, which showed one woman taking photos and videos of poisoned girls who were admitted there.

The statement further added that the woman was also seen around the school where the incident of poisoning was reported.

Thereafter, a judicial case was registered against the accused woman and she was taken into police custody "on charges of spreading lies and propaganda" against the Iranian government.

Meanwhile, a parliamentary fact-finding committee investigating serial poisonings in Iran is supposed to submit its report in May.

Last month, Iran's Interior Ministry announced the arrest of 100 people in multiple provinces including Tehran, Qom, Zanjan, Khuzestan, and West Azerbaijan in connection with these poisonings.