Iran on Saturday executed two men after they were convicted of killing a paramilitary force member during the anti-government protests that have swept the country since September, CNN reported.

In December, two men, Mohsen Shekari, and Majidreza Rahnavard, were executed.

In the early hours of Saturday, Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini were hanged.

They were accused of killing paramilitary officer Seyed Ruhollah Ajamian on November 3 when large demonstrations took place in the city of Karaj near Tehran. Prosecutors had alleged that Ajamian was stripped naked and killed by a group of mourners who had been paying their respects to a dead protestor, identified as Hadis Najafi.

While 16 persons were arrested in the case, Karami and Hosseini were named as the main suspects.

A lawyer on Saturday said that Karami was not allowed to meet his family before he was killed.

The counsel representing Hosseini, meanwhile, alleged that their client was beaten with a metal rod while in jail, the BBC reported.

Foreign-based human rights organisations have said that more than 500 protestors, including 70 children, have been killed during the demonstrations.

Protests have swept Iran since 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini died in September after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country’s strict hijab dress code for women.

Officials say she died of heart attack while in custody but critics believe she was physically assaulted on accusations of violating the hijab mandate.