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.

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