ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iranian state media has for the first time acknowledged the killing of protesters during last month’s civil unrest.
Rights group Amnesty International issued a report on Monday placing the death toll at 208, although it said the real figure is likely much higher.
Protests erupted across Iran following a government decision to raise petrol prices by as much as 300 percent.
Iran, home to some of the largest oil reserves in the world, was already struggling under crippling US sanctions designed to end its nuclear ambitions.
Philip Luther, Amnesty’s research director for the Middle East and North Africa, described the Iranian state’s reaction to the demonstrations as a “horrific killing spree”.
“This shocking death toll displays the Iranian authorities’ shameful disregard for human life,” said Luther. He called on the international community to investigate.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (ICRG) had threatened protesters with a “decisive and revolutionary response” if the demonstrations continued.
The dead have also been denied burials, according to the rights monitor. Bereaved families are subjected to financial extortion in order to retrieve the remains of their loved ones and discouraged from speaking to the media.
“Since the Iranian authorities have previously shown they are unwilling to carry out independent, impartial and effective investigations into unlawful killings… we are calling on the international community to help ensure accountability.”
Gholam Hossein Esmaili, Iran’s judiciary spokesperson, was asked in a press conference on Tuesday about the number of people killed in the recent protests as reported by global monitors and media organizations.
He responded by accusing the media and human rights groups of fabricating the death toll.
“All their tallies and the names they announce are lies… the hostile media names individuals as killed while they are alive and we have interviewed them,” he said.
“A considerable number of those killed were killed by thugs because we all saw and heard that the rabble was in possession of arms,” he added.
Esmaili claimed most of those detained following the protests have been released but admitted that 300 people are in prison in Tehran alone.
Iranian state TV on Tuesday acknowledged the death of Iranian civilians at the hands of security forces, the first state admission of the unlawful killing of civilians.
Referring to protesters as “armed rioters,” the report alleged it acted to defend civilians in the midst of an “armed struggle” in order to “save lives” in Mahshahr, Khuzestan province, home to a significant Arab minority who accused the state of discrimination.
The TV report also criticized international Farsi-language coverage of the protests, according to The Associated Press.
Tehran has received widespread condemnation for its response to the peaceful protests, from the European Union, Germany, and the United States. Washington has vowed to “expose and sanction the abuses” of the state.
In a November 22 tweet, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo encouraged Iranian protesters to share evidence of the lethal force used against them.
An internet blackout imposed throughout the country has slowly been lifted, further revealing the deadly crackdown on protesters which is among the deadliest in the history of the Islamic Republic.
The country was taken offline for a week in an attempt to curb protesters from organizing and communicating with the outside world.
Government spokesman Ali Rabie said the blackout had been imposed to limit foreign powers from “taking advantage” of the unrest.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini has already accused other states of encouraging the demonstrations. “All the centers of the world’s wickedness against us have cheered the street protests,” he said.
Tehran, which holds significant sway in neighboring Iraq, has also accused the US and Israel of “meddling” in the Iraqi protests.
Meanwhile, Iranian militias are said to have participated in the killing of hundreds of Iraqi demonstrators who have taken to the streets since early October.
