Sayyid Hashem Bathaie Golpayegani –an Iranian Shia Marja' and representative of the Tehran Province in Iran's Assembly of Experts – died on 16 March 2020 from coronavirus.
He studied at the Qom Seminary.
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."
On February 22, Hashem Bathaie Golpayegani announced at a ceremony that he had been infected with COVID-19, but had healed himself using an "Islamic remedy".
Three weeks later, on March 14th, he was hospitalized. On 15 March 2020, the Al Arabiya English reported that he had been infected with coronavirus. On 16 March, Golpayegani died from the virus.