With the issuance of verdicts in the Shiraz flood case, the municipality was sentenced to pay blood money.
More than a year after the deadly flood in Shiraz, with the announcement of the verdicts in the flood case, the Shiraz Municipality and two mayors were sentenced to pay blood money to the families of the victims of the incident.
According to Iranian media reports, based on the rulings issued, "the current mayor of Shiraz was sentenced to three years of ta'zir imprisonment, which was suspended. The former mayor of Shiraz was also subject to the statute of limitations in terms of ta'zir."
The Shiraz Municipality, along with the two mayors, have also been "jointly and severally sentenced to pay blood money." It has been announced that this ruling is subject to appeal.
Previously, the Fars Prosecutor's Office did not blame other agencies for the flood. This is while the Shiraz City Council's fact-finding committee previously blamed other organizations and executive agencies, including the Governor's Office, the Ministry of Energy, the General Directorate of Roads and Urban Development, the Planning and Budget Organization, the Police Force, the General Directorate of Natural Resources, the General Directorate of Meteorology, and so on, in varying degrees, for the Shiraz flood.
On April 25, 2019, a flash flood in Shiraz near the Quran Gate killed 21 people and injured 119. At the time, some criticized the filling of the canal next to the Quran Gate as the cause of the disaster.
US officials have repeatedly warned against the mismanagement of Iran's natural resources and the unnecessary and unplanned construction of dams aimed at lining the pockets of corrupt officials of the Islamic Republic regime, citing it as one of the main factors behind various environmental crises, including devastating floods and unprecedented droughts.
In May 2018, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced his support for the Iranian people, saying, "We are witnessing financial and environmental crises in Iran. Corruption has engulfed the country. The regime is stealing from its own people."
Brian Hook, the US Special Representative for Iran, also stated that after the revolution, six hundred dams had been built in Iran "without any environmental assessment," and that the Islamic Republic regime had destroyed the country's water resources through mismanagement over the past forty years.
Source: Voice of America
