According to these reports, at least 150 victims have died in Qom, 100 in Tehran, 100 in Mazandaran Province, 37 in Arak and Saveh, 37 in Isfahan, Homayounshahr and Najafabad, 24 in Kashan and 22 in Gilan. In addition, several more people have died in Mashhad, Kermanshah, Karaj, Semnan, Bandar Abbas, Yazd, Ilam, Yasuj, Khorramabad, Neyshabour, and Hamada. The clerical regime, however, has put the death toll at 43 and the number of those contracting the virus at 593.
The regime’s criminal initial cover-up, designed to minimize the impact of the spread of the virus on the turnout of the 1979 revolution anniversary on February 11 and the election masquerade on February 21, as well as its failure to take any preventive measures have resulted in catastrophic consequences for the victims. “Some people were advising us to postpone the elections in Qom. They insisted on postponing the elections in Qom, but as the official in charge, I did not accept any of them,” Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli told a press conference on February 23. This is a clear admission to a major crime against humanity.
Ali Khamenei, Hassan Rouhani, and other regime leaders as well as IRGC commanders are responsible for the unprecedented outbreak of COVID-19 and the deaths of hundreds of Iranians. They must be brought to justice for crime against humanity.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 29, 2020