TEHRAN - Ayatollah Hashem Bathaei Golpaygani, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, passed away on Monday morning due to the coronavirus.

According to Mehr news agency, he was born in 1941 in Golpayegan, Isfahan province, and studied in Qom Seminary. 

He served as the governor of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province by the order of Islamic Revolution founder Ayatollah Khomeini in the early days of the 1979 revolution. 

He was also the Leader’s representative in Golpayegan, a faculty member of Tehran University, and a teacher at Qom Seminary School.

In separate messages, Chairman of the Assembly of Experts Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati and Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani expressed deep condolences over his loss.

Also, Fariborz Raisdana, an economist and a member of the Iranian Writers Association, also passed away on Monday from the coronavirus.

The number of people diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, in Iran has increased to 14,991, of whom 853 have died and 4,996 recovered so far.

In previous days, Mohammad Reza Rahchamani, chief of the National and Cooperation Party and former MP; newly elected female lawmaker Fatemeh Rahbar;  Hossein Sheikholeslam, Iran’s former ambassador to Syria; and Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a member of the Expediency Council, also died due to the same infection.

NA/PA