Ghalibaf's Reaction to Critics of Municipal Land Transfers: I Feel Sorry for Them

The mayor of Tehran responded to critics regarding the transfer of tens of thousands of square meters of municipal land to a charity of which his wife is a board member, stating, "I feel sorry for them." On Thursday, November 5, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf said, "They say that Ghalibaf has given 149,000 square meters of land to his wife, and one feels sorry for them." He emphasized that this land was allocated for the construction of a hospital for the 'Imam Reza Charity,' and his wife is one of the nine members of its board of trustees. Ghalibaf added, "The entire hospital is also endowed, but look at what they are saying?" Rahmatollah Hafizi, a member of the Tehran City Council, recently reported that 49,608 square meters of land in Region 22 of Tehran was transferred to a charity at a price of 149,000 tomans per square meter, with Zahra Sadat Mosheer, Ghalibaf's wife, being one of the board members. Council members have also reported on the "tens of billions of tomans" in municipal aid to this institution in recent years. In advertisements for land sales in Region 22 of Tehran, each square meter that allows for residential construction sells for over three million tomans. However, the Tehran municipality stated that this land was transferred "at the current expert rate" and that the assets of this institution do not belong to any individual or legal entity and are "completely for public endowment." According to the Tehran municipality, this land was originally intended for charitable medical activities, and a medical center supervised by Majid Samii, a famous Iranian-German neurosurgeon, is to be built there, with construction "in the final stages." In contrast, Hafizi announced on Tuesday that the land transfer to this charity was "not recorded in the financial statements of the Tehran municipality for the year 90." Hafizi stated that about 60 billion tomans from the municipal budget has been allocated to this project, but "no memorandum of understanding has been exchanged to date between the municipality and the project managers." Before the issue of land transfer to the 'Imam Reza Charity,' the transfer of municipal properties to managers of this institution, city council members, two journalists from state media, and some others had also made headlines. According to a published image of a letter from the General Inspection Organization of the country on the Architecture News website and some other media, the Tehran municipality sold 200 properties belonging to the municipality "at unrealistically low prices" with a "50 percent" discount and in "60-month" installments to some managers of this institution and other individuals affiliated or close to the mayor of Tehran. However, this organization announced on September 4 that the published letter "does not constitute the final report of the organization." Yashar Soltani, the editor-in-chief of 'Architecture News,' the website that exposed the transfer of municipal properties, was arrested after visiting the prosecutor's office on Saturday, September 27, and remains in custody. Meanwhile, Ahmad Hakimi Pour, a member of the Tehran City Council, was summoned to the prosecutor's office for providing the General Inspection Organization's letter regarding the transfer of municipal properties to Yashar Soltani and had appeared at the prosecutor's office on Tuesday morning, November 4.