ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran's interior ministry on Saturday evening announced that over 100 people had been arrested for gas attacks on mostly girls' schools across the country which left thousands of girls affected with several hundred hospitalized. The statement referred to some of the individuals arrested as “criminals” and said that authorities are attempting to establish a link between the detainees and foreign-based “terrorist” groups - a charge punishable by death. Authorities for more than three months have failed to arrest a single culprit behind the attacks, which started in the central city of Qom, except for a journalist from the city who investigated the attacks before Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for decisive action. The interior ministry said that over 100 individuals were arrested in around 11 provinces and added that some were being “naughty” but others were “criminals” who wanted to create negative publicity for the Islamic Republic. “Amongst those detained, there are individuals with hostile intentions and in order to create terror amongst the people and pupils and to close the schools and create a negative view of the state,” the statement said. “Investigations are ongoing with these criminal individuals to establish if they have a possible link with the terrorist group of Hypocrites,” a euphemism for the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a militant opposition group based in Albania. Speeches by Khamenei on matters of national intelligence are perceived as an indication of a call to action by the state as well as security and intelligence agencies. Shortly after the speech, the head of the judiciary Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei said those behind the attacks are “corrupt on earth,” a charge that could carry the death penalty. The judiciary chief also added that a trial will be held for the perpetrators when they are arrested. Less than 24 hours after the speech by Khamenei, the Tehran prosecutor repeated the signals mentioned by Khamenei and said investigations have been opened against actors, politicians, professors and at least three media outlets. On Friday, state media published a report in which a pupil and her father appear to have confessed to the gassing of a number of schools in Fars province. Confessions under duress are a familiar scene on Iranian TV, and given the importance of the issue to the Supreme Leader, more people are expected to be paraded by the intelligence agencies in Iran on TV in the coming days.
