A top Iranian official said the country has rounded up and arrested 3,600 of its citizens for “spreading rumors about coronavirus.”
Brig. Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, the spokesman for Iran’s armed forces, said Tuesday that Iranian police and Basij forces have arrested thousands of people and claimed the country’s “enemies” had “agents” working inside to undermine Iran. The Basij forces are a paramilitary wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that are used for internal security.
“Our enemies are always hostile and have agents to further their wishes in our country, but we had a very good performance in combating coronavirus in comparison with countries that claim to be advanced. You can see what disaster the United States is stuck in,” Shekarchi said.
He also claimed outside forces were trying to damage Iran’s reputation because of its “very good” work during the coronavirus pandemic. The Iranian regime asserts that there have only been about 94,500 cases and more than 6,000 deaths, although that claim flies in the face of what experts, dissident groups, and even some elements within Iran’s own government have said.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a leading dissident group that has advocated for regime change, claims that it has tallied nearly 38,000 deaths associated with COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, which falls under the NCRI umbrella, is viewed as a terrorist organization in Iran and has had members arrested and killed over the years. Officials with the dissident group told the Washington Examiner that they have affiliates all over the country reporting data about the actual numbers of those who have died.
Shahin Gobadi, a press spokesman of the MEK based in Paris, told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that "a large number of MEK activists and families of MEK members have been arrested" since the coronavirus pandemic began.
Earlier this month, a 46-page report by the research center of Iran’s Parliament was published that claims the true death toll in Iran is nearly double of what the regime has said. The report also says the total number of coronavirus infections is likely “eight to 10 times” what has been reported. The report was the highest-level claim from within the Iranian government that its own figures are incorrect.
Despite the evidence that the pandemic has been far deadlier than projected, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has told citizens not to be afraid of the illness as the country begins to reopen. This week, Rouhani said that “excessive worrying is worse than this corona itself” in an attempt to encourage people to start returning to normal, even as fears of a second wave of infections remain.
The Iranian economy has taken a beating since the start of the health crisis, crippled by U.S. sanctions and broadsided by plunging oil prices.
Worldwide, the pandemic has resulted in more than 3.2 million infections and at least 231,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. surpassed 1 million cases this week and is now approaching 62,000 deaths.
