17 Mar 2020; MEMO: Representative of the people in Tehran at the Iranian Assembly of Experts, Ayatollah Hashem Bathaei-Golpaygani, died of the coronavirus yesterday morning, local media reported.
Seventy-eight-year-old Bathaei-Golpaygani was reported to have lost his life at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti Hospital, where he had been receiving treatment for the novel coronavirus.
The Assembly of Experts is a body that supervises and appoints the Supreme Leader of Iran.
Iran is one of the worst-hit countries by the coronavirus with 724 deaths and more than 13,900 confirmed infections.
The country recently asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for $5 billion in emergency funding to deal with the pandemic.
The novel coronavirus has infected more than 182,400 people and killed over 7,100 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of deaths outside China have now surpassed those inside.
