TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian man convicted of raping dozens of women over the past two decades has been publicly executed, the country’s state media reported Wednesday.

The state-owned IRAN newspaper said Muhammad Ali Salamat was hanged after Iran’s Supreme Court approved the death penalty in early October. He was executed at dawn on Tuesday at a cemetery in the western city of Hamedan.

About 200 women accused Salamat, 43, who runs a pharmacy and gym in the city, of rape. He is said to have committed the crimes over the last 20 years.

Iranian media reports stated that in many cases Salamat raped his victims after proposing marriage or going out with them. He allegedly supplied some with abortion pills, which are illegal in Iran.

He was arrested in January in Iran’s largest rape case ever attributed to a single criminal. Following his arrest, hundreds of people gathered at the city’s justice department and demanded the death penalty for Salamat.

UN experts said in September that Iran was among the countries that carry out the most executions in the world. The increasing number of executions in Iran has sparked outrage from human rights groups.

In Iran, rape and adultery are among the crimes punishable by death. In 2005, Iran publicly hanged a 24-year-old man who raped and murdered 20 children. In 1997, authorities executed a 28-year-old man in Tehran for kidnapping, raping and murdering nine girls and women.