Leading media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on Iran on Wednesday to release a journalist who was detained after detailing a series of mysterious poisonings of schoolgirls, saying the detention appeared to be an attempt to stop him to silence.
According to authorities, more than 5,000 students, mostly girls, have been affected by the poisoning since November.
Human rights groups based outside Iran have accused the authorities of not doing enough to protect women’s education, and protests erupted outside education authorities across Iran on Monday and Tuesday, observers said.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday called for the perpetrators of the “unforgivable crime” to be tracked down “without mercy”.
Paris-based RSF said Ali Pourtabatabaei started covering the story for the Qom News website and on Twitter as soon as the first poisoning cases were reported in the holy city of Qom in late November, and he was still covering the story when he was arrested on March 5.
It said he managed to call his sister to say he had been arrested, but it was not clear where he was being held.
Pourtabatabaei has criticized the Qom authorities’ lack of response to the first reported cases of poisoning, he added.
The mysterious poisonings have heightened tensions in Iran almost six months after the protest movement began sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating the compulsory dress code for women.
Since the early days of the protest movement, Iran has held two Iranian journalists, Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who helped expose the Amini story.
“As they did with the journalists who exposed what happened to Mahsa Amini, the Iranian authorities are trying to silence those who dare to investigate and report other stories that are embarrassing to the government said Jonathan Dagher, RSF’s head of the Middle East desk.
He said about 30 journalists and media workers are currently being held by Iran. Most were arrested during the crackdown on the protest movement.
“Ali Pourtabatabaei must be released unconditionally. … The systematic persecution of journalists who still dare to do their work must end,” he said.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that “several people” suspected of manufacturing dangerous substances have been arrested in six provinces, including a parent of a student.
Amid mounting public anger, protests against the authorities’ response took place in several cities this week, including Tehran, Mashhad and Shiraz, Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said.
Authorities shot at demonstrators and arrested teachers to disperse a protest in the western Iranian city of Sanandaj.