Hashem Bathaie Golpayegani

Sayyid Hashem Bathaie Golpayegani (Persian: سید هاشم بطحایی گلپایگانی; 1941 – 16 March 2020) was an Iranian Shia Ayatollah and representative of the Tehran province in Iran's Assembly of Experts.^[1] He studied at the Qom Seminary.

Hashem Bathaie Golpayegani
Bathaie Golpayegani in 2018
Member of the Assembly of Experts
In office 24 May 2016 – 16 March 2020
Constituency	Tehran province
Majority	1,331,056 (29.57%)
Personal details
Born	1941 (1941) Guged, Isfahan province, Imperial State of Iran
Died	16 March 2020(2020-03-16) (aged 78–79) Qom, Iran
Cause of death	COVID-19
Education	Qom Seminary
Website	Official Website

Bathaie ran under the People's Experts and the Friends of Moderation electoral list in the 2016 Iranian Assembly of Experts election.

Golpayegani claimed that "America is the source of coronavirus, because America went head to head with China and realised it cannot keep up with it economically or militarily."^[2]

On 22 February, Hashem Bathaie Golpayegani announced at a ceremony that he had been infected with COVID-19, but had healed himself using an "Islamic remedy".^[3] Three weeks later, on 14 March, he was hospitalized.^[3] On 15 March 2020, the Al Arabiya English reported that he had been infected with coronavirus.^[4] On 16 March, Golpayegani died from the virus.^[5][3]