Iranian Expats In US, Canada Hold Rallies In Solidarity With Iran Protests
Iranian expatriates in the United States and Canada held gatherings in Washington DC and Toronto on Sunday to express support for popular anti-regime protests in Iran.
Iranian expatriates in the United States and Canada held gatherings in Washington DC and Toronto on Sunday to express support for popular anti-regime protests in Iran.
The Washington protest was held at the former building of the Iranian embassy and called by dissident singer-songwriter Arash Sobhani, a blues musician who has been an active advocate of human rights and democracy in Iran and has delivered speeches about Iranian social issues in various universities, including Harvard, Stanford, and University of California Irvine.
During the event, Sobhani performed some of his original works, which are usually themed around the cultural and political issues in the Islamic Republic, as well as some cover songs about Iran, which were accompanied by the participating crowd.
The gathering in Toronto was organized by Hamed Esmailioun, who is the flagbearer for the victims of the downing of Ukrainian Airlines Flight PS752 in January 2020 by the Revolutionary Guard, where he himself lost his wife and daughter.
"Iran is ruled by the turban-wearing criminals and bloodthirsty revolutionary guards," Esmailioun said during his speech at the demonstration.
In both gatherings, people expressed solidarity with the people of Abadan, whose mourning ceremonies for the victims of the collapsed ten-story Metropol twin towers in May have turned into anti-government protests and spread to other cities of the southwestern Khuzestan province as well as other cities across the country.
“Although we tremble from sorrow but abound with anger; our heart is with you Abadan and we will not let them trample on the truth,” Esmailioun added.
The government’s official IRNA news website broke the news of Gholamreza Shariati’s move to leave the country, while several other current and former officials have been detained. He is said to have been one of the officials backing the owner of the building in his project that eventually violated many regulations.
The Metropol twin towers collapsed on May 23 burying more than 80 people under the rubble, with 42 bodies recovered so far, although the current governor insists that the number is 38. It is not clear what happened to the other 40 people who went missing, as most of the debris has been removed.
A report in local media said that 108 construction workers were on duty in each shift, in addition to businesses that had already opened their doors and visitors to the building. These numbers indicate that casualties could have been many more in the tragic event.
Immediately after the disaster it became apparent that the owner, Hossein Abdolbaghi, a well-connected businessman, had broken multiple regulations when constructing the building, having enjoyed the backing of officials.
One prominent individual who appears to have been one of his protectors is the son of Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the supreme national security council. Documents obtained by Iran International last week showed Mo’ud Shamkhani recommended Abdolbaghi to city authorities as a reliable businessman.
Shamkhani later denied any connections with the owner of Metropol.
But what the building owner did, was securing illegal permissions to build additional 5 floors, above the city’s building code allowing only 8-story-high structures. Metropol, which was almost completed when it collapsed had 13 floors.
The incident instantly became an example of government corruption and insider dealings by Islamic Republic officials and led to days of large anti-government protests in Khuzestan and elsewhere. The government deployed thousands of “anti-riot” special troops to Abadan and other cities in the province and arrested an unknown number of people, stopping the protests.
Abdolbaghi’s fate also remains uncertain. On the day of the incident, local law enforcement announced that the owner was arrested, but the following day, higher level officials claimed he had died in the incident and produced an unrecognizable body, which they claimed was Abdolbaghi and confirmed with DNA testing. Experts, on the other hand, insist that it would not be possible to complete a DNA identity authentication in a few days.
Rumors on social media said Abdolbaghi had left the country with the help of officials who were partners in crime, and he was possibly in Turkey. No one has been able to verify if he is dead or went abroad.
The controversy surrounding the Metropol towers is not the only scandal in which former governor Shariati has been implicated. In 2020, court proceedings in the case of an illegal privatization deal revealed that his wife tokk $200,000 in bribes from the owner of Haft-Tappeh sugar mill company to provide him cover when he failed to pay his workers for months.