Relatives of those who died in custody were being given 'false or contradictory information regarding the cause of their deaths', the three said, adding that such reports continued to flow in.

El Hadji Malick Sow from the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and Margaret Sekaggya, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, were the other two issuers of the statement.

Following the controversial election process in June, which saw incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stay on for a second term, demonstrators, mostly from opposition groups, took to the streets, saying there had been electoral fraud. Security forces responded by cracking down on demonstrations.