6 Billion Toman Fraud Against the Disabled Under the Pretext of Housing Construction

Following reports of abuse against the mentally and physically disabled at a care center in Alborz province, ISNA reported that a contractor company has defrauded 6 billion tomans from physically disabled individuals in the Mehr housing project. On Tuesday, September 30, ISNA reported that the managers of a contracting company took 6 billion tomans from the contributions of members of the Iranian Disabled Community Housing Cooperative and a bank in 2010 and disappeared shortly thereafter. In 2010, a contract was signed between the Iranian Disabled Community Housing Cooperative and a company that, after receiving 6 billion tomans from the contributions of the disabled and the bank, committed to building over a thousand Mehr housing units in the new city of Hashtgerd, but the project contractors have been missing since then. One member of the Disabled Community Housing Cooperative told ISNA, "The first contractor of the project during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government took 3 billion tomans of our money and 3 billion tomans of bank loans and disappeared." According to him, the physically disabled have no contract to file a complaint against anyone. In fact, since 2012, the Hashtgerd Mehr housing project has been halted because the company that was acting as the project contractor was expelled after the fraud. The new contractor, according to some members of the Iranian Disabled Community Housing Cooperative, is also delaying the project. Another member of the cooperative told ISNA that the new contractor's delay in construction is aimed at making a profit because the land is next to the Hashtgerd metro line and will become valuable with the metro's operation. Previously, Iranian media reported on a care center for the mentally and physically disabled in Fardis, Karaj, which showed that some of them were tortured in this facility. The prosecutor of Karaj confirmed the use of ropes and chains for the care of the mentally and physically disabled in this center. In this regard, a welfare official stated that care centers for the disabled in Iran are "not paradise." Mohseni Ejei stated that two people have been arrested in connection with the abuse of the disabled.