Iran executed at least 975 people last year in a “horrifying escalation” of its use of capital punishment, two human rights groups said on Thursday.

Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and French group Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) said the figure was the highest since IHR began recording executions in Iran in 2008.

The figure “reveals a horrifying escalation in the use of the death penalty by the Islamic republic in 2024,” they said in a joint report, accusing Iran of using the death penalty as a “central tool of political oppression.”

“These executions are part of the Islamic republic’s war against its own people to maintain its grip on power,” IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said.

“Five people were executed on average every single day in the last three months of the year as the threat of war between Iran and Israel escalated,” he added.

Last year’s figure represented a 17-percent increase on the 834 executions recorded in 2023, the report said.

Of the 975 people executed, four were hanged in public while 31 were women, also the highest figure for the past 17 years.

Human rights groups, who say that Iran is the world’s most prolific executioner after China, accuse the authorities of using the death penalty to sow fear among the public, particularly after nationwide protests broke out in 2022.

Capital punishment remains a key pillar of the Sharia-based judicial system established after the 1979 revolution ousted the Western-backed shah.

Crimes punishable by death include murder, rape and drug offenses but also vaguely worded charges like “corruption on earth” and “rebellion” which activists say are used against dissidents.