Iran
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 869
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 2,156
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · The 1999 figures for capital sentences and executions...
- News items in the archive
- 9,155
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Iran is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 869 executions in the country, against 2,156 the year before. The archive holds 9,155 news items on Iran, from 1999 to today.
Iran is one of the countries where the association records the highest number of executions each year. The usual method is hanging, and capital punishment applies to a wide list of offences: murder, drug offences, offences against state security, sexual offences, and charges such as moharebeh, enmity against God, which allow very broad application.
Many executions are never announced. They emerge from local sources, from human rights organisations and from families. For Iran, more than anywhere else, the archive's count is a documented minimum.
Latest news
FEBRUARY 5, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hands off Cain: 80 executions in January 2024
FEBRUARY 3, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hassan Mehraban executed in Qazvin on February 3
FEBRUARY 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Iran HRM: 88 Executions in Iranian Prisons during January 2024
82% of the executions were carried out secretly
FEBRUARY 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hengaw: 74 Executions in Iranian Prisons during January 2024
JANUARY 31, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - A woman, Zahra Nazarian, executed in Sabzevar on January 31
230th woman executed in Iran since 2007
JANUARY 31, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hossein Habibi executed in Urmia on January 31
JANUARY 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehdi Azaryoun executed in Urmia on Jannuary 30
JANUARY 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 2 men executed in Karaj on January 30
Esmail Chieh and a man only identified as Payam
JANUARY 29, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Execution for Four Kurdish Political Prisoners in Karaj on January 29
Pejman Fatehi, Mohsen Mazloum, Vafa Azarbar, and Mohammad Faramarzi
JANUARY 29, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Rajabian executed in Karaj on January 29
JANUARY 29, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed in Karaj on January 29
Mohammad Hussein Esmaieli, Ali Rajabian, Javad Ajamian, and Mohammad Hassan Jafari
JANUARY 28, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Reza Ghorbani executed in Karaj on January 28
JANUARY 28, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Aref and Asif Ishaqzahi executed in Birjand on January 28
JANUARY 28, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ruhollah Shakeri executed in Birjand on January 28
JANUARY 28, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Iran seeking death penalty for Johan Floderus
In retaliation for the life sentence handed down in Sweden on Hamid Noury
JANUARY 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Death sentence confirmed for Kurdish political prisoner Yousef Ahmadi
JANUARY 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 Kurdish prisoners of conscience at imminent risk of execution
Anvar Khezri, Kamran Sheikheh and Khosrow Besharat
- JANUARY 24, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 3 men executed in Shiraz on January 24
Fazel Shafiei, Morteza Nadimi + Unk. 63 executions in January
JANUARY 24, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Obidavi sentenced to death
A political prisoner
JANUARY 24, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Judge Salavati: The Ruthless Enforcer of Iran’s Medieval Legal Decrees
JANUARY 23, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Political prisoner Farhad Salimi executyed in Karaj on January 23
JANUARY 23, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ahmad Asgarat executed in Karaj on January 23
JANUARY 22, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Protester Mohammad Ghobadloo executed in Karaj on January 22
JANUARY 22, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Massoud Rigi executed in Zahedan on January 22
JANUARY 22, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hossein Ali Shakurian and Naser Mavedat executed in Sabzevar on January 22
JANUARY 21, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Abdulreza Qalavand severely beaten prior to his execution
Was executed on August 21, 2123
JANUARY 21, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Salman Salimi and Ahmad Haeri executed in Hamedan on January 21
- JANUARY 21, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Moslem Aliyari executed in Shirvan on January 21
JANUARY 21, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Another young woman killed by the police
Anahita Amirpour, 20 years old
JANUARY 20, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Isfahan on January 20
Nouri Zamani, Fathollah Jourkesh and Hosseinali Koutahi