Iran rejects as ‘lies’ unrest death tolls given abroad

Iran yesterday rejected as “utter lies” unofficial casualty figures given for street violence that erupted last month during demonstrations against a shock decision to hike fuel prices.

Protests erupted in Iran on November 15 after the announcement that petrol prices were going up by as much as 200 percent with immediate effect.

Banks and petrol stations were torched and shops looted in the violence which was quickly quashed by authorities who also imposed a week-long near-total internet blackout.

“I explicitly announce that the numbers and figures that are being given by hostile groups are utter lies and the statistics have serious differences with what they announced,” Iran’s judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said.

“They announced some numbers as well as some names... Their claimed numbers are sheer lies and fabricated,” he said, in remarks aired on state television.

“The names they have given are also lies,” Esmaili said, adding that they included people who were still alive and others who passed away normally.

The authorities have not yet given any overall death toll for the unrest.

London-based human rights group Amnesty International said on Monday that at least 208 people were killed in the crackdown.