After more deaths were reported as a result of moonshine consumption and alcohol poisoning, some media outlets started speculating that these are “serial alcohol poisoning”, which officials including the chief of police denied, claiming there have been arrests made. The Judiciary’s spokesperson also confirmed that arrests have been made.
According to a survey by Iran Open Data, half of all adults regularly consume alcohol despite the Islamic regime’s ban, homemade alcohol a common way to skirt the bans. In 2018, a report by the World Health Organization ranked Iran ninth among 189 countries for alcohol consumption per capita. Iran is also ranked very high when it comes to alcohol poisoning related deaths. According to official media reports, in the last month alone, at least 132 people out of the thousands of alcohol poisoning reports have died. This widespread tragedy includes at least 12 provinces and 45 cities, which reported deaths due as a result of people being poisoned or killed by counterfeit alcohol (see Daily Summary of 28 June 2023: “Raisin Toll from Hooch in Islamic Republic”). In the city of Rebat Karim, a working-class town in the south of Tehran, more than fifty people had checked-in to local hospitals for alcohol poisoning in recent weeks. Local media later reported that a total of seven of those have passed. This is not the first time of course that alcohol poisoning deaths have been reported in the country, however, the recent wave appears to be much more widespread and there are some media outlets that continue to draw sinister suspicions of a serial poisoning, similar to the school girl poisonings of earlier in the year. This has led to allegations that like mass schoolgirl poisonings that started in late November and spread throughout the country until the end of Spring, religious extremists protected by the Nezam may be involved in the poisonings, while the Nezam officials blamed the “enemies”. (see Daily Summary of 03 March 2023: “Nezam Once Again Blames ‘Enemies’ for Poisoning Mystery”). In the case of the recent alcohol poisonings, however, the officials are nipping it in the bud before it gets out of hand. After news that alcohol poisonings, similar to the school girl poisoning cases, are intentional and coordinated, Ahmadreza Radan, the head of Police Chief, strongly denied suspicions that the recent alcohol poisonings could have been deliberate. Moj News, quoting the top LEF commander, reported that at any location where there have been reports of people being poisoned with counterfeit alcoholic drinks, the distributors have been identified and arrested. Additionally, Masud Setayeshi, the spokesperson for Judiciary also commented on the matter claiming there have been arrests made with regards to distributors of these drinks. Setayeshi told reporters that so far, ten people have been arrested in the Alborz province alone on charges of producing and distributing alcoholic beverages, and all of them have been issued temporary arrest warrants and sent to prison. Despite the officials struggling to fully downplay the ordeal, there are more people dying from alcohol poisoning on a daily basis and if the police chief is correct in that these are not serial poisonings, the law enforcement either needs to track down the culprits quickly or, the Nezam needs to find a way to legalize the sale of alcohol in some capacity in order to regulate it–an unthinkable proposition for the hardliners.
