Tehran, May 26 (IANS): An Iranian man, who was sentenced to death for "corruption on earth", was publicly executed by authorities in the city of Maragheh amidst the presence of a massive crowd.

In a report, Iran International, a 24-hour Persian-language news channel, said the man was publicly hanged on Thursday.

According to Mahmoud Nemati, the prosecutor of Maragheh, the man was convicted of "corruption in the world, due to the spread of prostitution and deception of women and girls and making films of them".

The convict was arrested in 1995 and was imprisoned in Maragheh, Iran International said in its report.

Condemning the act, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group said the killing shows "the true face of a government that tries to prolong its life with cruelty, humiliation and intimidation of society".

Taking to Twitter, director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said "this brutal act of terrorising Iranian people must be strongly condemned".

He went on to say that the difference between the Islamic State terror group and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is that "IS was regarded as a terrorist organization, while Khamenei's Islamic Republic will be chairing UN Human Rights Council's Social Forum soon".

An image posted by the IHR on Twitter shows a blindfolded man standing next to two executioners wearing balaclavas.

According to the human rights group, a total of 273 executions have taken place in Iran this year, with at least 106 in the first 20 days of May, constituting the "bloodiest month" in more than five years.

Since 2010, 7,264 people have been executed.