MP: 3,700 people arrested during riots

An Iranian lawmaker said on Tuesday that some 3,700 people were arrested in the days of protests and riots that roiled Iran over the past two weeks.

Representative Mahmoud Sadeqi, of Tehran, said that different security and intelligence forces detained the protesters, making it difficult to know the exact number of students arrested during the protests, the official news website of the Iranian Parliament, icana.ir, reported.

However, he said 40 to 68 university students were arrested by security forces.

Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Ja’fari Dolatabadi on Tuesday confirmed that one of the prisoners, Sina Qanbari, has committed suicide in Evin Prison in Tehran on January 6, IRNA reported.

On Sunday Dolatabadi said that 70 of the detained protesters had been released on bail during the previous 48 hours. He added that there would be more releases from detention, except for the main instigators of the riots.

Also on Sunday, Iranian lawmakers held a closed parliamentary session in which senior security officials briefed them on the protests and the conditions of the detainees.

Twenty people were killed in the unrest surrounding the protests against the economic problems facing the country.

Following the protests, Iranians took to the streets for six consecutive days to denounce the riots.