At least 12 prisoners in Iran charged with political or security-related offenses now face death sentences amidst a record year of executions.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that the men are detained in prisons around the country.

The report emphasizes the involvement of branches 26 and 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, led by Judges Iman Afshari and Mohammad Moghiseh, in issuing death sentences for eight of the individuals in two separate cases.

Charges against them include allegations of "insurgency, corruption on earth, membership in opposition parties, and collaboration with foreign countries." Despite repeated assertions of the baselessness of the accusations in letters published by human rights organizations in recent years, the prisoners now find themselves on death row.

HRANA, after scrutinizing the current status of the 12 prisoners, has declared that the report illustrates a "repetitive and alarming pattern of human rights violations in Iran." The human rights organization condemns instances of confessions obtained under torture as “blatant injustices and clear violations of the fundamental rights of these individuals.”

The organization additionally emphasized, "In terms of access to their chosen legal representation, these prisoners have never effectively exercised this right, and their trials have been short and riddled with numerous flaws, indicative of their deprivation of fair trial proceedings."

As the regime struggles to contain dissent, hundreds of Iranians were killed last year, many of whom were political prisoners, with a spike in executions for drug related offences.