A Norway-based human rights group warned Thursday that Iran could use renewed tensions with the U.S. to ramp up executions of political prisoners, dissidents, and other inmates on death row.

Iran Human Rights reported July 6 that Iran executed 370 people in the first half of the year, including 101 in June. The group said it received reports of more than 400 other executions that have not been verified through sufficient documentation or confirmed by two independent sources.

"With the breakdown of the ceasefire and the resumption of the war, we are deeply concerned that the authorities will exploit the situation to intensify the execution of political prisoners," IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said Wednesday in a statement.

"Hundreds of political prisoners and protesters are currently facing capital charges, and we estimate that around 100 have already been sentenced to death. The international community — and the European Union in particular — must make an immediate moratorium on executions a central issue in any dialogue or negotiations with the Islamic Republic."

The group reported that at least five people were executed by hanging on Wednesday, including Aref Khoshkar, part of the Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement that began in September 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who was arrested by the morality police for not wearing her hijab properly.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran reported Thursday that Khoshkar, 28, was arrested Nov. 11, 2022, during protests in Tehran's Fallah neighborhood. The group said he was subjected to torture.

Iran's judiciary sentenced him to death on charges of killing a Basij member who was actively involved in suppressing protesters.

"They tortured him for years," U.S.-based journalist and Iranian expatriate Masih Alinejad wrote Thursday on X. "When that wasn't enough, they arrested his younger brother and threatened to rape him, to force Aref to confess. His family had their last visit on July 12. They begged for one month to arrange a meeting with the victim's family to seek forgiveness, a legal right under Iranian law.

"The authorities themselves promised that meeting. They executed him anyway. The meeting never happened. This is a regime that uses rape threats against children to manufacture confessions, then kills the man who was broken by them."

The IHR said that of the roughly 370 executions through June, 55 involved people convicted on national security-related charges. Of those, 18 were protesters, 13 were political prisoners affiliated with banned opposition groups, 12 were accused of espionage and/or collaboration with foreign states, seven were convicted of armed robbery, and two were accused of affiliation with the Islamic State group.

Details of the other three cases were unknown.

IHR and the NCRI also reported Wednesday's execution of Mohammad Amini Dehaghani in connection with the protests this past January.

Although the IHR said no independent information was available about his case, the NCRI said Iran's judiciary sentenced him to death on charges of "enmity against God (moharebeh) and corruption on Earth" for "drawing a stolen Kalashnikov firearm at officers" and "disrupting national security by setting fire to the governorate and the central police station of Dahaqan."

The IHR said Dehaghani was the 21st protester executed since March 19 in connection with the January 2026 anti-regime protests.