A U.S.-based rights group has urged world leaders to pressure Iran to stop what it described as the "imminent execution" of four ethnic Kurds convicted of spying for Israel.
Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), said in an appeal on January 18 that all four men "demand urgent global attention."
"World leaders must call on the Iranian authorities to immediately halt their spree of executions or face diplomatic and economic consequences," he added.
CHRI said the four prisoners -- identified as Vafa Azarbar, Mohammad (Hajir) Faramarzi, Mohsen Mazloum, and Pejman Fatehi -- were sentenced to death "within 24 hours of a secret trial" and raised concerns about them facing execution "without ever being provided a modicum of due process."
Iran's Intelligence Ministry has claimed that the men were operatives of the leftist Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, but the party has denied the assertion.
In December, Iran executed four people -- three men and a woman -- accused of working for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency.
Abram Paley, U.S. deputy special envoy for Iran, on January 12 condemned the death sentences handed to the four ethnic Kurds and called on Iranian authorities to "release all unjustly detained political prisoners and stop repressing their own people."
Days later, he criticized the Iranian government's "use of the death penalty to target the exercise of human rights" following a report by CHRI that the Islamic republic had executed more than 700 people in 2023.
Amnesty International says the Islamic republic executed more people than any other country in the world other than China last year.
The rate of executions in Iran has been rising sharply, particularly in the wake of the widespread protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in September 2022 after she was arrested for allegedly not covering her hair properly.