Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged officials to “seriously pursue” cases of suspected poisonings at girls’ schools around the country, which left hundreds of students hospitalized and sparked nationwide anger.
Speaking for the first time in reaction to the spate of sicknesses, Iran’s head of state said they were a “big crime that can’t be ignored.”
“The perpetrators of this crime will have to be severely punished without mercy if poisonings are proved,” Khamenei said in a statement read on state TV on Monday.
