Iran
2026
- GOVERNMENT
- theocratic republic
- CONSTITUTION
- December 1979, revised in 1989 to extend presidential power
- LEGAL SYSTEM
- based on Sharia law
- LEGISLATIVE SYSTEM
- unicameral, Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majles-e-Shura-ye-Eslami)
- JUDICIAL SYSTEM
- Supreme Court
RELIGIONS
Shia majority; 10% Sunni; Christian, Jewish, Bahá'í, and Zoroastrian minorities
From the country
- MAY 8, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
A 37-year-old gay Iranian man who has overstayed his...
A 37-year-old gay Iranian man who has overstayed his visa, is fighting to stay in Japan out of fear of a death sentence if sent back to his home country
- APRIL 25, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Four Afghan drug traffickers were hanged in Birjand,...
Four Afghan drug traffickers were hanged in Birjand, in Iran's northeastern Khorassan province
- APRIL 24, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The UN Human Rights Commission adopted a resolution...
The UN Human Rights Commission adopted a resolution (21 in favour, 17 against and 15 abstentions) tabled by the European Union expressing concern for continued human rights violations in Iran
- APRIL 16, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Five drug-traffickers, sentenced to death by a revolution...
Five drug-traffickers, sentenced to death by a revolution court were hanged in public in the northeastern city of Birjand
- APRIL 5, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The death sentences issued to four men who tried in...
The death sentences issued to four men who tried in 1998 to sell Dh4 million worth of hashish to an undercover policeman have been upheld by the Dubai Court of Cassation
- MARCH 19, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Five people, included a woman, involved in a "ring...
Five people, included a woman, involved in a "ring of drug-traffickers" in Tehran's Khak-e Sefid District, were executed in public after being sentenced to death the day before by Branch 27 of Tehran's Islamic Revolution Court
- MARCH 8, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Mohammad Javad Reza'i, Asghar Ramazani and Ahmad Baqerian,...
Mohammad Javad Reza'i, Asghar Ramazani and Ahmad Baqerian, sentenced to death in the central city of Shahin-Shahr on charges of "kidnapping, rape and aiding and abetting murder", won a last-minute reprieve after they asked for pardon at the gallows
- MARCH 2, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The annual report of the American State Department...
The annual report of the American State Department described the death sentences given to smugglers as being tantamount to human rights' violations in Iran
- MARCH 1, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Mohammed Reza-Chupari and Daryush Keshavarz , both...
Mohammed Reza-Chupari and Daryush Keshavarz , both Iranians, were hunged in public for murdering three police officers and drug trafficking in the central city of Abadeh
- FEBRUARY 25, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Three [unidentified] Afghan bandits were hung in public...
Three [unidentified] Afghan bandits were hung in public in the Khorasan Province on the border with Afghanistan
- FEBRUARY 20, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
An Afghan national, Shalif Alizehi, was executed after...
An Afghan national, Shalif Alizehi, was executed after being found guilty of robbery, rape and drug trafficking
- FEBRUARY 20, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi,...
The head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi, defended the use of the death penalty to the visiting UN Human Rights High Commissioner Mary Robinson saying most death sentences passed in Iran were drug-related