Another 300 more people were said to have suffered from the toxic effects of the illegally distilled brew on Sunday that has shocked clerics, authorities, and military officials in the city of 300,000 people.
Last week local media reported that another 10 people had died and 15 others went into comas from the same poisoned batch of alcohol – however victim’s families believed the number of deaths so far was much higher.
The governor of Rafsanjan – a relatively wealthy region at the center of Iran’s pistachio cultivation – said the incidents may be part of a plot to influence the June 14 presidential election by lowering voter turnout to undermine the regime.
Friday prayer leader Abbas Ramezani-Pour said: “Some of the city’s youths have been poisoned by drinking ergogenic drinks.
“Some people are trying to question the revolutionary and religious face of Rafsanjan by spreading rumors. Similar incidents have caused up to 20 deaths in other cities but nobody has said anything.”
Ali Rassoulian, head of martyr foundation and veteran affairs in Rafsanjan, described the poisoning as ‘the enemy’s new conspiracy to ruin Rafsanjan’s religious face’.
He said: “All agencies and institutions of Rafsanjan will stand up to thwart these enemy conspiracies.”
And governor Akbar Pourmohammadi told the state-run Fars news agency: “We are creating a political epic in this election, but some people are trying to create an atmosphere in which they can achieve their mischievous goals.”
Hamid Najmedin of the Rafsanjan Medical Science University also told a news Web site: “All of the victims were young. Those who died were men under the age of 27.”
Alcohol consumption is illegal under Iran’s Islamic laws and punishable by lashing or even death, yet the mortality rate due to its consumption has risen by 23 per cent since last year, according to regime officials.