Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, June 9, 2020—The death toll of Iran’s coronavirus outbreak surpassed the 50,000 mark this week, according to reports obtained by the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). By Monday June 8, over 50,300 people had died of the novel coronavirus in 327 cities checkered across all of Iran’s 31 provinces, the MEK reported.
This is while the official death toll declared by the regime stands at 8,351, less than a sixth of the actual figure.
The key question is, how did we get here, and was this national disaster preventable?
The regime’s criminal secrecy
The mullahs’ regime knew about the coronavirus epidemic at least two weeks before it officially acknowledged on February 19, 2020 after two people died of COVID-19 in Qom. The MEK had obtained documents that showed coronavirus patients had been registered in hospitals in Qom and Tehran in early February.
Showing no compassion for the people’s lives and well-being, the regime decided to cover up coronavirus cases in a bid to bring crowds for the pro-regime rallies scheduled on February 11, the anniversary of the 1979 revolution, and the sham parliamentary election of February 21. This criminal decision led to the rapid spread of the virus across the country as the people were kept in the dark. In the meantime, travel to and from China, where the virus first emerged, continued unabated.
Iran’s Mahan Air, an airliner associated to the terrorist-designated Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), continued to run Chinese service through February and March, while also contributing to longstanding smuggling operations. Later it was recognized that these simultaneous activities made Mahan a major contributor to the regional spread of the coronavirus.
Khamenei chose the worst scenario
Khamenei chose the worst scenario
On March 24, an Iranian student research group forecasted three possible outcomes for the coronavirus outbreak in Iran, including a scenario where 3.5 million people lose their lives to COVID-19.
According to this group, the best-case scenario is to quarantine 80 percent of the population where the number of affected people would rise to 120,000 by April 1 and the death toll will reach 12,000.
In the second scenario, if quarantines are not applied and connections between the people stay at 50 percent of their normal level, about 300,000 people will contract the virus and a death toll of 110,000 could be expected.
The worst scenario was that if the regime remains antagonistic to public quarantines, 65 percent of the population will contract the virus and millions will die.
But despite the published results of the research, Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani downplayed the situation and insisted on not imposing quarantines on cities, calling it a conspiracy of the anti-revolutionists to shut down the economy.
Security above people’s lives
Security above people’s lives
As the regime’s own state-run media has acknowledged, the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Rouhani had chosen the security of their regime above people’s lives. Their priority was to maintain their rule, and Khamenei very clearly said that production must resume, “whatever the price.” Khamenei had earlier mentioned that he aims to turn the coronavirus threat into an opportunity.
Instead of imposing quarantines to prevent the spread of coronavirus, he reopened the economy and sent the people back to work and coronavirus minefields, so that he can further tax their income and export agricultural and mineral products.
Also, Rouhani said that if 2-3 million people die from coronavirus, it would be better than 30 million hungry people take to the streets, clearly expressing his fear of the potential of nationwide protests re-emerging.
Fake statistics
Fake statistics
From day one, the regime kept the real statistics secret. Rouhani said on February 26: “We will not decrease or increase the current statistics! If anyone dies of this disease, we will let the people know, but every day, people die of natural causes in all cities. Some die because of flu, some people die because of influenza, we must not connect these cases to coronavirus.”
On April 9, Khamenei justified his regime’s engineered coronavirus statistics in his remarks. “In comparison to other problems, this is very small. Ten million people died during two major world wars and in this coronavirus situation, they say one million have died around the world. About the statistics, many good things have been said and the national radio and television acted very well,” he said.
But Khamenei’s strategy of falsified numbers and statistics failed due to daily information published by MEK, obtained by its internal network. As a result, even the regime’s own officials don’t confirm the fake official statistics. From Tehran’s city council to the managers of the healthcare systems and even members of the Coronavirus Task Force, many officials are questioning the regime's statistics. The regime is still not able to announce its statistics separately by province since in that case, its lies will become even clearer than before.
Failed strategy
On June 6, Rouhani showed his frustration toward daily revelation of the Iranian Resistance, which has become a source of information for many across the globe, and emphasized that “the people shouldn’t pay attention to foreign propaganda about the coronavirus outbreak.”
What’s clear today is that the coronavirus cases in Iran could be much less, and this national disaster was evitable. The regime’s approach and mismanagement during the crisis is proof of why the coronavirus has become a tragedy for Iranians.
The Iranian Resistance repeatedly revealed that Khamenei’s huge financial institutions, such as the Astan-e Quds Razavi, and Execution of Khomeini's Order, have billions of dollars’ worth of assets and financial resources to support the Iranian people during the lockdown. But Khamenei refused to use those funds and chose the strategy of mass human casualties toward coronavirus crisis. Instead, he continued to channel his huge wealth to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and to fund terrorism in the Middle East region.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI),said
Regarding the horrific and tragic number of fatalities, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), reacted to, and said: “The catastrophe could have been prevented as was the loss of so many lives. The fatality figures in Iran, even the official figures, cannot be compared with other Middle East countries, whose economic and social infrastructures are far weaker than Iran.
“Khamenei and Rouhani are directly responsible for the increasing number of victims and must be held to account. Instead of paying the salaries of workers and hardworking people for a few months from the vast resources of the economic cartels controlled by Khamenei and the IRGC, they have sent the people of Iran back to work and to the Coronavirus altar of sacrifice.”
