The Norway-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHR) said in a statement that five men were hanged on Wednesday in the Vakilabad prison in the eastern city of Mashhad without their families being notified or given a chance to make a final visit.

"These prisoners were subjected to torture and sentenced to death after an unfair trial," said IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, who described the five as "political prisoners."

Four of the men belonged to Iran’s Sunni Muslim community, a minority group in the Shiite-majority Islamic Republic. The fifth man was identified as a Shiite. All were arrested in 2015 and convicted of the crime of "bagi," which means "rebellion" under Iranian Islamic law, for being members of banned Sunni Muslim groups. Three other defendants in the same case were executed in December 2020.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that families only learned about the executions through phone calls and were still waiting outside prisons to collect their loved ones’ bodies.

Iran remains the world’s second-highest-intent country for the death penalty, after China. According to the IHR, at least 245 people have been executed since the beginning of the year. The IHR warned of an alarming increase in the number of executions.