Iran reportedly carried out the execution of six prisoners on Saturday, who were accused by the regime of conducting lethal attacks in the country’s oil-rich southwest, allegedly on behalf of Israel. This represents a new spike in executions, which rights groups have noted have surged to unprecedented levels not seen in several decades.

The six executions were reported by The Associated Press, as well as Iranian news agency Mizan. 

A seventh prisoner, accused of killing a Sunni cleric in 2009, along with other crimes, was executed in Kurdistan province. 

Saturday’s executions follow the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June, which ended with Tehran vowing it would target its enemies at home and abroad.

The seventh prisoner, Saman Mohammadi Khiyareh, identified as a Kurd, faced conviction for the 2009 killing of Mamousta Sheikh al-Islam, a Sunni cleric supportive of the government, in Sanandaj, a Kurdish city.

Activists have raised doubts regarding Khiyareh’s case, pointing out that he was merely 15 or 16 at the assassination time and was detained at 19, only to be held for over a decade before being executed. They argue that his conviction rested on confessions secured through torture — a tactic they accuse Iranian judiciary of routinely employing.

The rate of executions has seen a sharp increase since President Massoud Pezeshkian assumed office in July 2024, with at least 975 individuals executed that year, based on data from the United Nations. Pezeshkian reports to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds the ultimate authority in the nation.

Iran has been putting prisoners to death at a pace unseen since 1988, when it executed thousands at the end of the Iran-Iraq war.

Independent U.N. human rights experts have expressed concern over the massive number of executions, labeling it as “a severe intensification that breaches international human rights law,” according to a recent statement from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“With an average of more than nine hangings per day in recent weeks, Iran appears to be conducting executions at an industrial scale that defies all accepted standards of human rights protection,” the body said.