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
AUGUST 1, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Zahedan on August 1
Hossein Gomashadzehi, Yousef Kalbali + Unk
AUGUST 1, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ruhollah Azizi executed in Arak on August 1
AUGUST 1, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Massoud Eshaghzehi executed in Zabol on August 1
JULY 31, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Zahedan on July 31
Saeed (Aref) Barahouyi, Ali Barahouyi and Khodarahm Mohammadani
JULY 31, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Rahim Ghaljaei executed in Birjand on July 31
JULY 31, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Asadollah Amini (also Asadullah Bahrami) executed in Zabol on July 31
JULY 30, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Bidollah Gorgij executed in Zahedan on July 30
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 PENALTYIRAN - Abbas Deris at Grave Risk of Execution
One of the participants in the November 2019 protests over the price of gasoline
JULY 20, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN: 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 19, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unidentified man executed in Dezful
Date of execution not specified
JULY 19, 2023United StatesDEATH 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