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
- 8,611
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 8,611 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
- SEPTEMBER 8, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
TEHRAN AND KABUL TRADE ACCUSATIONS OF RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
The Taliban's foreign minister has criticised its leading economic ally and political supporter, Tehran, for the high number of executions in Iran, Farsi media reported.
- SEPTEMBER 8, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Saeed … executed in Tabriz in the last days
- SEPTEMBER 5, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Unidentified woman executed in Qom on September 5
18 women executed in 2023
- SEPTEMBER 5, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ali Abbas Najari executed in Shiraz on September 5
- SEPTEMBER 4, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - A woman, Mahboubeh Roshandel, executed in Mashhad on September 4
- SEPTEMBER 3, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Houshang Moghtaderi executed in Ahvaz on September 3
AUGUST 31, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Javad Rouhi has died under suspicious circumstances
A protester sentenced to death
AUGUST 29, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hamed Sargazi and Esmaeil Hajizadeh executed in Hamedan on August 29
531 executions since the beginning of 2023
AUGUST 27, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Wafa Kharamani executed in Saqqez on August 27
528 executions in Iran in 2023
AUGUST 27, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Sobhan Eftekharedin executed in Aligudarz on August 27
AUGUST 26, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Milad Yazdanpanah executed in Zarand on August 26
AUGUST 23, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Qezel Hesar on August 23
Kiumars Rezaei, Rahman Ebrahimi and Behrouz Rahmani
AUGUST 23, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unidentied man executed in Mahvelat on August 23
AUGUST 23, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehdi Karami executed in Karaj on August 23
AUGUST 22, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Shouresh Morovati executed in Sanandaj on August 22
AUGUST 21, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 5 men executed in Zahedan on August 21
Abdolsamad Khadem, Yaghoub Ejbari, Mohammad Anwar Barahouyi, Esmail Ghanbarzehi and 'Mir'
AUGUST 21, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Abdolreza Ghalavand executed in Ahvaz on August 21
AUGUST 21, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Jamil Abodllahzadeh and Mehran Amiri executed in Qazvin on August 21
AUGUST 21, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Rasoul Narouyi executed in Kahnuj on August 21
AUGUST 21, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Kerman on August 21
Saeed Rigi, Abdolghafour Toumaj and Amir Rahimi
AUGUST 21, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Yazdan Varehzardi executed in Ahvaz on august 21
AUGUST 20, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mousa Afkhami executed in Sari on August 20
AUGUST 19, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Abdul Samad Shahozehi and Mahmoud Rigi executed in Zahedan on August 19
AUGUST 19, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unidentified man executed in Dezful on August 19
- AUGUST 16, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ibrahim Moulodpour executed in Dezful on August 16
AUGUST 16, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hossein Javadi executed in Maragheh on August 16
- AUGUST 13, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mohammad Gorgij executed in Birjand on August 13
AUGUST 13, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Death commission members of Summer 1988 in Iran revealed
- AUGUST 13, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 3 men executed on August 13
Abdul Ghani Arbabi, Hamed Jamshidi + Unk
AUGUST 13, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Saeid Biranvand executed in Khorramabad on August 13
500 executions in Iran since the beginning of 2023