"Health Advocates" Complaint Filed in Court Against Khamenei, Rouhani, and Members of the National Coronavirus Task Force

Mohammad Reza Faghihi and Arash Keykhosravi, lawyers in Iran, filed a criminal complaint against Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, former President Hassan Rouhani, and members of the National Headquarters for Combating Coronavirus.

In the 22-page complaint filed by Mohammad Reza Faghihi and Arash Keykhosravi with the judiciary on Sunday, March 28, senior officials of the Islamic Republic have been accused of "inciting the unintentional killing of more than 100,000 Iranians, abusing their position and power, and failing to implement the laws of the country in the process of combating the coronavirus."

The Emtaed website reported that the two lawyers have asked the prosecutor to consider the contents of the 22-page complaint and also to seek "expert opinions from independent civil institutions to further explain the criminal actions of the officials."

In January 2020, Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, banned the import of American and British vaccines and emphasized domestic vaccine production. However, as the crisis escalated, he called the coronavirus the country's "first and most urgent" issue and called for the provision of vaccines in any way possible.

He had previously called the coronavirus just a "so-called disease" and said that "in our opinion, this calamity is not that big, and there have been calamities even bigger than this. They can solve many problems through prayer and supplication."

The order by the Leader of the Islamic Republic to ban the purchase of British and American coronavirus vaccines, the delay in the purchase and import of other foreign vaccines, and the inability of the "Imam's Command Executive Headquarters" to mass produce the Iranian coronavirus vaccine, caused the coronavirus vaccination program in the country to be delayed and slow, and a large number of people were sacrificed.

Many analysts stated at the time that it seemed that the main reason for the ban on the import of American and British vaccines into Iran was the effort of the "Imam's Executive Order Headquarters" to produce the vaccine domestically and monopolize its market in the country.

This headquarters, which operates under the supervision of the Leader of the Islamic Republic, launched extensive propaganda about the widespread production of the Iranian Barakat vaccine, even promising to deliver 50 million doses of the vaccine by September of this year, and effectively prevented the widespread import of the vaccine into the country.

At the same time, various institutions of the Islamic Republic, especially those close to the Revolutionary Guard Corps, unveiled several "vaccines" that they said were going to be produced, but there is still no news about their status.

These turmoils caused the death toll from the coronavirus in the country to increase sharply, until the Leader of the Islamic Republic was finally forced to say on August 10 of this year that the vaccine would be provided "by any means possible."

The filing of the complaint by Mohammad Reza Faqihi and Arash Keykhosravi against Ayatollah Khamenei and other officials of the Islamic Republic at the time comes at a time when these two lawyers, along with Mostafa Nili, Mehdi Mahmoudian, Maryam Fara Afraz, and Leila Heydari, were arrested by security agents on August 13 for refusing to sign a commitment not to file a complaint against Ayatollah Khamenei and other officials of the Islamic Republic for mismanagement of the coronavirus.

On September 29, Zabihullah Khodayan, spokesman for the judiciary, announced that the detainees were charged with "disturbing public order" and some crimes against national security.

They were accused of “forming a group hostile to the regime with the aim of disrupting security” and “propaganda against the regime” and are currently free on bail. Civil activist Mehdi Mahmoudian, of course, remains in prison.

Source: Radio Farda