At least 22 people were hanged this week alone, bringing the total number of executions since the so-called moderate president Masoud Pezeshkian took office in July to nearly 1,100 - one every 5.5 hours. The figure, reported by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), is a 20% increase on last year (853).

Iran observers say the rise is due to Ayatollah Khamenei’s fears of a people’s uprising coupled with the possibility of Donald Trump making an end to the state slaughter a condition of nuclear negotiations between the two countries which are due to continue in Oman on Saturday. Opponents of the regime and security experts warn the US negotiators must recognise this surge in killings and factor it into any nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

The killing-spree revelations come just hours after five high-profile political prisoners - Vahid Bani Amerian, Seyed Mohammad Taghavi, Babak Alipour, Pouya Ghobadi, and Shahrokh Daneshvarkar –were moved from Evin Prison to Qezelhessar Prison, where executions take place.

Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the NCRI, has urged the international community to predicate any dealings with the regime on the cessation of torture and executions and bring Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other regime leaders to justice for crimes against humanity and genocide. She said: "After suffering irreparable setbacks in the region and facing the growing threat of an uprising and overthrow, the regime has brutally accelerated executions and massacres.”

In Britain Baroness Nuala O'Loan who is a crossbench peer in the House of Lords and has fought for the human rights in Iran, said: “It would be a grave mistake to allow the mullahs to believe that the West will remain silent about Tehran’s egregious and appalling human rights record for the sake of nuclear negotiations. These talks must not, under any circumstances, create a shield of impunity for the ruling theocracy, especially concerning its treatment of Iranian citizens and political prisoners.

“The issue of human rights and flagrant abuses must be front and centre in any serious negotiations with the Iranian regime. Let us not forget that Iran is the world’s leading per capita executioner of its citizens According to Amnesty International, more than 64 percent of confirmed executions worldwide in 2024 occurred in Iran. The National Council of Resistance of Iran reports that there were at least 1,000 executions in 2024, and the trend has worsened since Masoud Pezeshkian took office in August. Any engagement with Iran should be contingent upon a halt to executions and the end to torture in prisons."

The prisoners who were moved this week were sentenced to death in December 2024 by the notorious Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court on charges of "membership in the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)," "assembly and collusion against national security," "armed uprising against the regime," "forming a group with the intent to disturb national security,"

In a statement to Express.co.uk, Hossein Abedini, Deputy Director of the NCRI office in the UK said: “The Iranian Resistance calls on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteurs, the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission, as well as the European Union and its member states to take urgent action to save the lives of political prisoners sentenced to death.”