The Iranian regime briefly paused its death machine apparatus of executing innocent civilians who participated in the January protests on Feb. 28 when the United States and Israel conducted a joint military campaign against Iran. The January protests drew a harsh crackdown resulting in tens of thousands of deaths — as many as 36,000, according to some reports — and hundreds of arrests. But in recent days, the regime has restarted its grisly game, fast-tracking executions to 10 over just the past eight days.

Monday saw the hanging of 23-year-old Ali Fahim, accused of attacking a Basij base in Tehran. Ten people have been charged in the case, and seven — two of whom were teens — have already been put to death. Iranian authorities called Fahim an “enemy element who participated in the assault on a prohibited military site during the December unrest,” claiming that he “had assaulted prohibited military sites to seize the armory and steal military weapons.”

Rights groups say the show trials are unjust and warn that the coming days may see hundreds more executions. Iran Human Rights (IHR) said that those who were executed were “subjected to torture and denied access to legal counsel” and sentenced in “grossly unfair,” rushed trials.

Of the 10 who were recently executed, four were killed for participating in the protest and six for belonging to the People’s Mujahedin (MEK), a banned opposition group. Many of those arrested are also accused of collaborating with “the Zionist regime and the United States.”

“These executions are part of the Islamic Republic’s strategy of survival — waging war against its own people under the shadow of external conflict,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

“The international community must respond with urgency. The situation of prisoners and the regime’s systematic use of the death penalty must be made a central condition in any negotiations or engagement with the Islamic Republic,” he added.

“These daily executions, carried out under the shadow of war, are part of a deliberate policy to terrorize the Iranian people and prevent new protests,” the human rights advocate also said. “The Islamic Republic’s main threat is not foreign bombs; it is the Iranian people demanding fundamental change. We fear for the lives of political prisoners and hundreds of detained protesters in the coming days and weeks.”