Tehran Municipality's Several Billion Toman Aid to Charity Linked to Mayor's Wife

In response to protests regarding the allocation of approximately 50,000 square meters of land to a charity whose board includes the wife of Tehran's mayor, a city council member announced that the municipality is not only granting the land 'almost for free' but is also providing financial support to the charity. A report from the Shargh newspaper on Sunday indicates that the municipality has provided several tens of billions of tomans to this institution in recent years. On Sunday, November 2, Gholamreza Ansari, a member of the Tehran City Council, told ILNA news agency that he has been unable to access the charter of the 'Imam Reza Charity' and it is unclear how the financial resources and facilities of this charity will be used in the future. According to Mr. Ansari, the Tehran Municipality has not only granted this charity land 'for free or almost free and at a negligible price,' but also provides annual financial assistance to it. He emphasized that a 'significant portion' of the buildings and facilities constructed at this charity have been built with direct and indirect assistance from the Tehran Municipality. Rahmatollah Hafezi, another member of the Tehran City Council, recently reported that 49,608 square meters of land in Region 22 of Tehran was allocated to a charity at a price of 149,000 tomans per square meter, with Zahra Sadeh Mosheer, the wife of Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, being one of its board members. In advertisements for land sales in Region 22 of Tehran, each square meter that allows for residential construction is sold for over three million tomans. Nevertheless, the Tehran Municipality has stated that this land was allocated '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.' In contrast, the Shargh newspaper published statements from city council members regarding the 'lack of transparency' concerning the ownership of the charity's assets. Several members of the Tehran City Council, including Fatemeh Daneshvar and Alireza Dabir, have stated that despite repeated requests, the documents of this charity have not been sent to council members. According to this report, since 2012, the Tehran Municipality has provided 'several tens of billions of tomans' in financial assistance to this charity, and in the 2016 budget, 35 billion tomans were allocated for this charity. Fatemeh Daneshvar, a member of the Tehran City Council, also mentioned that the name of Majid Samii, a famous Iranian-German neurosurgeon, does not appear in the documents of this charity. Meanwhile, the Tehran Municipality has announced that the land allocated to this charity was initially intended for public health activities and a medical center under the supervision of Majid Samii is to be built there, which is 'in the final stages of construction.' The publication of reports regarding the allocation of this land comes at a time when the issue of the transfer of municipal properties in Tehran has been a topic of controversy in recent months. Based on an image released from a letter by the General Inspection Organization of Iran on the Architecture News website and other media, the Tehran Municipality sold 200 properties belonging to the municipality 'at unrealistically low prices' with '50 percent' discounts and in '60-month' installments to some managers of this institution and other individuals close to or associated with the Tehran mayor. Following the publication of these reports, Yashar Soltani, the editor-in-chief of Architecture News, was arrested on September 18 after visiting the prosecutor's office and remains in custody. Regarding the transfer of properties, Mr. Ansari stated on Sunday to ILNA that 'over the past 10 years, due to unplanned aspirations and the centralized and authoritarian management prevailing in the municipality, a significant portion of the city's properties and assets have been transferred at minimal prices and under poor conditions.' This member of the Tehran City Council emphasized that the arrest of Yashar Soltani for publishing the letter from the Inspection Organization regarding the transfer of municipal properties 'has no justification.' Meanwhile, over 700 journalists from dozens of publications and news agencies have signed an open letter to the judiciary officials demanding the release of Yashar Soltani.