Three months after the Shiraz flood; four former mayors found guilty; the judiciary denies the role of other institutions
The Fars provincial judiciary found four of the previous mayors of Shiraz equally guilty of the April flood in the city and the deaths of more than 20 people.
Heydar Asiabi, the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor of the capital of Fars province, announced: "Given the receipt of the expert panel's opinion, four of the mayors of Shiraz from different eras have each been found guilty to the extent of 25%, and the expert panel's opinion is in the process of being announced."
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.
However, on Wednesday, 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 found that, in addition to the municipality, 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, etc., were to blame for the Shiraz floods, to varying degrees.
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 of last year, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, while announcing support for the Iranian people, said, "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
