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
JULY 30, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Shahsavar Shahriari executed in Zahedan on July 30
JULY 30, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hamid Asgarinia executed in Qom on July 30
JULY 30, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Arbab executed in Zabol on July 30
JULY 27, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Lawyer Mohammad Seifzadeh sentenced for letter to the UN Secretary-General
JULY 27, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unk executed in Bandar Abbas on uncertain date
JULY 26, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Masoud Shahbakhsh executed in Zahedan on July 26
JULY 26, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Iran court quashes Mohammad Ghobadlou death sentence
Convicted of killing a policeman during nationwide protests last year
- JULY 22, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Unnamed man executed in Qom on uncertain date
Likely on July 22
- JULY 20, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN: POLITICAL PRISONER MOHAMMAD JAVAD VAFA’I THANI SENTENCED TO DEATH
A judge at Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad, capital of the northeastern Razavi Khorasan Province, on July 19, 2023 sentenced to death Mohammad Javad Vafa’i Thani.
JULY 20, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Abbas Deris at Grave Risk of Execution
One of the participants in the November 2019 protests over the price of gasoline
JULY 19, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unidentified man executed in Dezful
Date of execution not specified
JULY 19, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - The Czech Republic will extradite a Georgian national over a plot to kill Iranian Dissident Masih Alinejad
JULY 19, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad-Javad Vafaie Sani sentenced to death
Political prisoner
JULY 18, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ghasem Seyed Hosseini executed in Urmia on July 18
JULY 18, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Seyyed Mansour Seyyedi, Moslem Havasi and Siamak Hayatbini executed in Karaj on July 18
JULY 18, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Habibollah Ilkhani executed on 18 July in Kermanshah
JULY 18, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Amad Moghadam and Saeed Almasi executed on 18 July in Hamadan
JULY 18, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unidentified man executed in Ahar on July 18
JULY 17, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Sangar Khezri executed in Naghdeh on July 17
JULY 17, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohsen Yaqouti and Hamzeh Farrokhi executed in Hamedan on July 17
JULY 17, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mojtaba Emami executed in in Sari on July 17
JULY 17, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Faramarz Nezami and Asghar Rahimian executed in Zanjan on July 17
JULY 17, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Hamadan on July 17
JULY 17, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Aydin Emami executed in Zanjan on July 17
- JULY 16, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Gholam Sediq Hormozi executed in Bandar Abbas on July 16
JULY 15, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Jahedullah Maaruf (Jahedollah Marouf) executed in Isfahan on July 15
JULY 13, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Ghaedi and Sadegh Mahmoodi Baram executed publicly on July 13
JULY 13, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Jiroft on July 13
Mehdi Shariati, Rashid Dehmordeh, and “Salarifar”
JULY 13, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hossein Dolkhani and Amir Islamdoost executed in Urmia on July 13
JULY 12, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Fatemeh Yousef Abadi, a woman, executed in Gohardasht on July 12