Deputy Chairman of parliament’s Legal Commission says he has met a teenager in Hamadan province who has received a five-year sentence for bringing down a flag during recent protests in Iran.

Mohammad Kazemi, who represents the city of Malayer in western Iran, told Etemad Online that during his visit to a detention center he met “a 15-year old, who pulled down an Islamic Republic flag in one of Malayer’s squares during the recent turmoil”.

Kazemi added that the teenager received the sentence in a lower court and has appealed.

Earlier, several Iranian officials had spoken of school students being arrested during widespread protests that rocked Iran in late December, early January. An Internal Affairs Ministry official admitted that “more than 90 percent” of those arrested were teenagers or young people.

In his remarks to Etemad, Kazemi also said that according to Director General of Hamadan province prisons, around forty protesters had been arrested. It is not clear whether he was referring to those still in detention or the total number of arrested individuals.

According to Kazemi, many of the detainees have rejected the bail set for them and have demanded lower bails and a faster legal process to deal with their cases.

The International Campaign for Human Rights has said that most of protesters who were arrested during recent unrests were not given a chance to be represented by lawyers or to meet with their families while in custody. The ICHR added that inmates could face the charges of “fighting God and the saints” which could lead to death sentences.