An Iranian rocket scientist who was working on developing top-secret missiles and drones has died under mysterious circumstances.
Dr Ayoob Entezari reportedly worked at a research and development centre in the city of Yazd in central Iran before his death on May 31.
Initial reports suggested he died of food poisoning, but local authorities denied this, saying he died of an unspecified illness and accused "one of his relatives" of looking for 15 minutes of fame by spreading a "rumour online".
On Sunday opposition outlet Iran International reported Dr Entezari had been intentionally poisoned by an acquaintance at a dinner.
The outlet also cited unnamed sources claiming that the man who hosted the fatal dinner party has since fled the country.
The governor-general's office in Yazd Province gave Entezari's family a certificate confirming his "martyrdom", which prompted the provincial judicial authorities to refute this and say Entezari was "an ordinary employee of an industrial company" who "died from a disease".
The governor-general's office now says labelling Entezari a "martyr" in the certificate was "a mistake by the public relations office" and "has been rectified".
They continued: "The cause of death of Mr Entezari is under investigation and the result has not been determined yet."
Before Dr Entezari died, he was allegedly working on new missiles and drones at a research and development centre in the provincial capital of Yazd.
The scientist graduated from the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran with a PhD in mechanical and aerospace engineering.
The mysterious incident comes just a day after the death of a colonel from Iran's elite Quds Force was also announced by the Islamic Republic.
The unit is part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and is responsible for overseas missions, and the colonel's death was the second in the same unit in just two weeks.
The official IRNA news agency said Colonel Ali Esmailzadeh died during an “incident in his residence” in the city of Karaj, around 19 miles northwest of the capital Tehran.
The Iranian government and IRGC media failed to mention any specific details of Esmailzadeh’s death after Iran International quoted sources in Iran as saying that The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps killed him over suspicions of espionage.
Officials of the Revolutionary Guard told Esmailzadeh’s family that his death was a suicide.
He was a close colleague of Colonel Hassan Sayyad-Khodaei, the acting commander of the elite Qods Unit 840, who was shot dead in his car outside his home in Tehran on May 22 by two gunmen who fled the scene on a motorbike.
