Iran executed three men charged over protests this January, authorities have said according to AFP, the latest in a wave of hangings of convicts seen by rights groups as political prisoners against the backdrop of the war.

Mehdi Rassouli, Mohammad Reza Miri and Ebrahim Dolatabadi were executed after being convicted over unrest in the eastern city of Mashhad in January, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency announced.

It was not specified when or where they were executed, but the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said Rassouli, 25, and Miri, 21, were hanged at dawn on Sunday at the Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad.