Iran: Coronavirus death toll in 310 cities exceeds 38,700
Maryam Rajavi: Khamenei and Rouhani send people to the altar of Coronavirus.
The Security Council must intervene to save the lives of prisoners and secure their release, especially political prisoners
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK) announced on Sunday, May 3, 2020, that the Coronavirus death toll has exceeded 38,700 in 310 cities across Iran. The number of victims in Khorasan Razavi is 2,920, Khuzestan 1,920, Alborz 1,460, Golestan 1,235, Sistan and Baluchestan 1,055, Hamedan 955, Lorestan 910, and Semnan 895.
In Langarud, the number of patients has increased in recent days, and Amini Hospital is facing a new wave of patients who need to be hospitalized. At least 26 people died in Ahvaz yesterday and hospitals are facing a shortage of space. In Rasht, hospitals have been instructed to refrain from hospitalizing patients as much as possible and to send them to their homes to make the situation appear normal. Meanwhile, today, Ahmad Hashemi, head of the University of Medical Sciences in North Khorasan told the official news agency, IRNA, ” In the coming days, the number of people with Coronavirus … will be unprecedented.”
However, today, Hassan Rouhani said, “Mosques will be reopened tomorrow and Friday prayers will be held in 132 cities, which are virus-free and low-risk, … Even in the red sections, some businesses … will open to the extent that there would be no gatherings.”
Ali Khamenei and Rouhani have resorted to this criminal act while many regime officials and experts consider it dangerous in the current situation. Alireza Zali, head of National Coronavirus Combat Taskforce in Tehran, said, “We should consider Tehran a contaminated city … The declining statistics should not deceive us.” According to Shabakeh Khabar (News Network), on May 3, 2020, Shahabadi from University of Medical Sciences in Kermanshah, said, “Positive cases in the province are increasing day by day. We are concerned about the second wave of the Coronavirus outbreak. The virus will have a more severe impact in the second wave.”
According to state-controlled daily Setareh Sobh on May 3, 2020, Mahboubfar, a member of the Committee for Prevention and Countering Coronavirus said he does not agree with Rouhani’s statement that “religious sites will probably be reopened in areas which are virus-free … There are no such locations, and there will be none.”
In another development, according to Tabnak website, three months after the Coronavirus outbreak and four weeks after Khamenei’s announcement of a € 1 billion withdrawal from the Sovereign Wealth Fund to deal with Coronavirus, Deputy Health Minister Iraj Haririchi today complained that the money was “still in the process of being exchanged from Euro to Rial and has not yet reached the bank account of the Ministry of Health.”
In the meantime, in remarks published by Fars News Agency, on May 2, Ahmad Khaddadi, Deputy Minister of Islamic Culture and Guidance, complained about the revelations and documents published by the Iranian Resistance regarding the Coronavirus outbreak in Iran. “The MEK is present in many European capitals including in Albania. They even have media and a TV network, and the people in Iran watch their reports,” he said.
The high rate of infections and the dire conditions in prisons prompted a prisoner of conscience, Mr. Mohammad Nourizad, to commit suicide in prison two days ago in protest against these conditions and also against widespread arrests, including the arrest of his son. He was transferred to the hospital. The situation of eight political prisoners in Mashhad prison, who had asked for Khamenei’s resignation is concerning. One of them, Mohammad Hossein Sepehri, was infected with COVID-19 last month.
On February 4 and April 8, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), strongly condemned the harsh, long-term sentences for these prisoners and urged the United Nations and Human Rights Council to take action to secure their release. Mrs. Rajavi asked the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran to immediately visit Mashhad prison, obtain information about the condition of prisoners, and take measures to save their lives.
Mrs. Rajavi added, by deceitfully comparing Iran to European countries, the mullahs’ regime tries to pretend that the situation is normal. Khamenei and Rouhani are sending the people to the killing field. They do not care about the people’s lives and do not provide the slightest assistance to the people from the hundreds of billions of dollars of public wealth under Khamenei’s control.
The Security Council should intervene to save the lives of prisoners and ensure their release, especially the political prisoners. The lives of prisoners are threatened by both the Coronavirus and the mullahs, she said.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
May 3, 2020
