Bank Accounts of 'Four Famous Individuals' Related to Aid for Earthquake Victims 'Have Been Frozen'

One day after the statements of the head of the 'Tehran Cyber Police' regarding the freezing of accounts introduced by 'four celebrities' to help the earthquake victims of Kermanshah, two officials from the Welfare Organization and the Relief Committee criticized the actions of the celebrities in this regard. In recent days, the 'Young Journalists Club' website, affiliated with state media, and the security site 'Mashregh News' reported, citing Toraj Kazemi, the head of Tehran Cyber Police, that the accounts introduced by a football player and three actors for collecting public donations for the earthquake victims of Kermanshah had been frozen. Mr. Kazemi also stated that no one had filed a complaint against these celebrities. Meanwhile, Abolghasem Rostegar, the director of public participation coordination at the Relief Committee, said in an interview with the Wednesday, May 23 edition of the 'Iran' newspaper that the artists who acted to receive public donations for the earthquake victims had 'no permits.' He claimed that 'the artists, through sensationalism and stirring emotions, caused the feelings of the people to be hurt.' Mohammad Kouzegari, the deputy of public participation at the Welfare Organization, also stated that some celebrities had not provided explanations regarding how the collected donations would be spent, and 'this has led to a lack of trust among the people towards them.' The head of Tehran Cyber Police, without naming names, said that the account number announced by a football player 'did not belong to him,' and the Cyber Police summoned this individual and froze his account. Ali Daei, a former national football team player, had announced last February that the prosecutor's office had frozen the accounts he introduced for helping the earthquake victims. Mr. Daei stated that he would negotiate with the prosecutor's office regarding this matter, but since then, no report has been published about the status of this account. Some sports websites reported that approximately 'seven billion tomans' had been deposited into the account introduced by Ali Daei. Some websites and Telegram channels also mentioned Mohsen Afshani, Navid Mohammadzadeh, and Sahar Ghoreyshi as actors whose accounts have been frozen. However, no official report has been published in this regard, and these artists have not reacted to these reports. After the Kermanshah earthquake, several prominent sports, academic, and cinematic figures, including Sadegh Zibakalam, Ali Daei, Niki Karimi, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Elham Pavehnejad, Rambod Javan, Behnoush Bakhtiari, Gohar Kheirandish, Mohammad Reza Golzar, Baran Kowsari, Niyousha Zighami, Hamed Behdad, and Narges Kalbasi requested help from the public through personal accounts, as well as accounts related to cinematic and supportive institutions. Sadegh Zibakalam, a political science professor at Tehran University, reported that three billion and 400 million tomans had been deposited into the account he introduced. He announced that he intended to use this amount to build a model village based on 'international sustainable development principles,' which he named 'Hope Village.' The announcement of this news coincided with the death of several earthquake-affected children due to frostbite, including 'Sarina Zahabi,' which led to criticism of Sadegh Zibakalam, with some asking him to use this amount to donate trailers to the earthquake victims. However, Sadegh Zibakalam considered these criticisms to be a result of 'revenge' by official institutions and hardline individuals against celebrities whom the people trusted instead of official institutions. Narges Kalbasi Ishtari, an Iranian-British philanthropist, also raised two billion and 500 million tomans to help the earthquake victims of Kermanshah. Previously, some officials had criticized the direct collection of aid by artists and prominent figures, accusing them of not providing a report on how the collected donations were spent. Among them, Ismail Najjar, the head of the Crisis Management Organization, had called for the collected aid to be handed over to this organization. Farhad Tajri, the representative of Qasreshirin, Sarpol Zahab, and Islamabad, also stated: 'Some are exploiting the prevailing atmosphere in the earthquake-affected areas for self-glorification, and this is a kind of playing with people's emotions and exploiting these feelings.' The 7.3 magnitude earthquake that occurred on November 21, 2017, at the Iran-Iraq border in Kermanshah province left over 600 dead and more than 10,000 injured. In recent months, numerous reports in the media and social networks have highlighted shortages and criticisms from the local population, including a lack of trailers and sanitary facilities, deaths of several children due to cold, and flooding of the earthquake victims' tents.