Iran to investigate death of schoolgirl in early days of protests

Iranian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the death of a teenage girl during the early days of protests in Tehran, who has become an icon for the anti-government movement.

Universities have been a battleground for days, and on Wednesday riot police were deployed around campuses in several cities including Tehran, Reuters reported, citing witnesses.

This week high school students have also taken an increasingly prominent role. They have attacked symbols of the ruling regime, including portraits of prominent clerics, taken off their headscarves and documented their fight against decades-old restrictions in videos and photos.

Defiance has spread rapidly, despite more than 1,500 arrests and a bloody government crackdown in which dozens of people have been killed and hundreds more injured.

The death of Nika Shakrami, who would have turned 17 at the weekend, has become a focus for online activists who say she was killed during the first days of protests, in late September. After she went missing, her family spent several days searching for her before she was confirmed dead.

Another state news agency, Tasnim, said eight people had been arrested in connection with the death.

The government has intensified efforts to stamp out the protests as they spread around the country and across ethnic and class divides. Authorities claimed the leaderless movement has been fomented by foreign agents.

But many people suggested the post was a forced statement, made under duress while he was in custody. Human rights groups have frequently criticised Iran for forcing prisoners to make confessions.

The protests have come at a time of increased tensions with the west, when efforts to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal have stalled. In a rare concession, on Wednesday Iran allowed 85 year-old Baquer Namazi, a US citizen and former Unicef official, to leave the country.

The US had demanded his release as a condition of reviving the nuclear deal. Namazi was detained in 2016 when he traveled to Iran to press for the release of his son Siamak, who had been arrested several months earlier on espionage charges.

Siamak Namazi has been released from jail on furlough but remains inside Iran; his father who needs urgent medical treatment landed in Oman on Wednesday.