Iran said in an official report that fewer than 300 people died in the protests over the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022.
The figure is far lower than one given by a UN fact-finding mission, which said “credible figures suggest that as many as 551 protestors were killed by security forces, among them at least 49 women and 68 children.”
Amini, 22, was an Iranian Kurdish woman who died days after she was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s Islamic dress code.
A committee that President Ebrahim Raisi tasked with investigating the protests said Amini died from cerebral hypoxia – a lack of oxygen reaching the brain.
Amini’s family in October 2022 rejected an official medical report that said her death was not due to beatings.
Iran has placed the blame for deaths during the protests on “rioters” and said the majority of deaths came from “terrorist acts or attacks.”
Iran’s report, nearly 300 pages long, was published nine days after the UN Human Rights Council issued a report that accused Tehran of crimes against humanity.
Tehran has condemned the UN findings, calling them “baseless claims.”
Iran’s own official report estimates 281 people died in the months of unrest following Amini’s death in September 2022.
It said 202 civilians were killed, including 112 bystanders, “during the riots by rioters carrying illegal weapons that were not used by the police. Its report also stated 90 civilians killed were involved in “terrorist acts and attacks” against the military, police, and public buildings.
Iranian experts noted in their report that “governmental institutions, including security services and the judiciary, acted responsibly in the fact of unrest.”
Iran’s commission said 34,000 people were arrested during the protests, 292 of whom are still in custody with 158 sentenced to prison terms.
Iran executed several men convicted of murder or other violence against security forces during the demonstrations.
The report blamed foreign interference for the unrest, accusing the US, Israel, Britain, Germany, and France.
