Shiraz Municipality Ordered to Pay Blood Money Following Flood Case Verdict
More than a year after the deadly Shiraz flood, with the announcement of the verdict in this case, Shiraz Municipality and two former mayors have been ordered to pay blood money to the families of the victims of this disaster.
According to reports from Iranian media, based on the issued verdicts, “the current mayor of Shiraz has been sentenced to three years of discretionary imprisonment which has been suspended. The former mayor of Shiraz was also subject to statute of limitations from a discretionary perspective.”
Likewise, Shiraz Municipality along with these two mayors have been “jointly ordered to pay blood money.” It has been announced that this ruling is subject to appeal.
Previously, the Fars Province prosecutor did not hold other agencies responsible in this flood. This comes as the fact-finding committee of Shiraz City Council previously identified, in addition to the Municipality, other executive organizations and agencies including the provincial governorate, Ministry of Energy, General Directorate of Roads and Urban Development, Organization of Planning and Budget, law enforcement forces, General Directorate of Natural Resources, General Directorate of Meteorology and others as responsible for the Shiraz flood to varying degrees.
On the fifth day of Farvardin 1398, a sudden flood in Shiraz in the vicinity of the Quran Gate resulted in the death of 21 people and the injury of 119 people. At that time, some criticized that filling the streambed next to the Quran Gate caused this tragedy.
U.S. officials have repeatedly warned about Iran’s mismanagement of natural resources and unnecessary and unplanned dam construction aimed at filling the pockets of corrupt officials of the Islamic Republic regime, identifying it as one of the main causes of various environmental crises, including devastating floods and unprecedented droughts.
Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State, in Ordibehesht of the previous year 97 had said while announcing support for the Iranian people that “we are witnessing financial and environmental crises in Iran. Corruption has gripped the country. The regime is stealing from its own people.”
Brian Hook, U.S. Special Representative for Iran Affairs, while noting that six hundred dams have been built in Iran since the revolution “without any environmental assessment,” stated that the Islamic Republic has destroyed the country’s water resources through mismanagement over the past forty years.
Source: Voice of America
