More than 80 Iranian lawmakers called on the judiciary on Tuesday to urgently clarify and pursue a 2024 case in which chemotherapy drugs were allegedly stolen from a hospital in the northwestern city of Tabriz and patients were injected with distilled water instead.
The lawmakers, in a letter to judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei published by Iranian media, said more than a year after the alleged malpractice at Vali-Asr Hospital, officials have yet to provide a full public account of what happened or who was responsible.
They urged what they described as a “serious and transparent” investigation to protect patients’ rights and public trust.
The case first surfaced in Iranian media in October 2024, when local outlets reported that cancer patients at the privately run hospital had received distilled water in place of high-cost chemotherapy drugs that were allegedly diverted for sale on the black market.
Provincial police said at the time that a hospital aide was detained as a suspect and later identified three alleged accomplices, adding that the drugs had been moved to Tehran and sold in the informal market. According to East Azarbaijan police, 20 judicial case files were opened, including cases involving deceased patients’ families.
Prosecutors in Tabriz said the investigation began after a complaint was filed in November 2024, and that four people were arrested.
The provincial prosecutor’s office has said at least one patient whose medication was stolen died, prompting the case to be referred to a special murder unit, and that more than 30 complainants have registered claims so far.
Health authorities in Tabriz confirmed wrongdoing in the chemotherapy ward but said it involved “individual misconduct” rather than an institutional policy, and that the hospital itself reported the suspects to law enforcement.
Former vice president involved
In their Tuesday letter, lawmakers also raised concerns over a potential conflict of interest involving Shahram Dabiri Oskuei, the hospital’s main shareholder and director.
They said Dabiri had sought to frame the affair only as illegal drug sales and had publicly suggested the missing treatments did not affect patients’ life expectancy because some were in advanced stages of cancer.
The lawmakers said that Dabiri has announced his candidacy to head Iran’s Medical Council Organization, a body that can play a disciplinary role in suchcases, and said this could undermine confidence in the investigation.
DabiriOskuei, a physician and politician who served as Tabriz city council chairman and later as Iran’s vice president for parliamentary affairs in under President Masoud Pezeshkian, has not publicly responded to the lawmakers’ new call, according to Iranian media.
Pezeshkian fired him in April after images surfaced online showing the official on vacation in Argentina and en route to Antarctica during the Iranian new year holidays.
Separately, Iranian media reported a similar case in January at Tehran’s Shariati Hospital, where officials said a staff member was suspended after drugs were allegedly siphoned off and replaced with distilled water, with the matter referred to the courts.
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.