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
APRIL 5, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Shiraz on April 5
ousef Juma Hosseini, Kazem Rasouli, and Ali Hossein Sadeghzadeh
APRIL 5, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - In Iranian year 1401, at least 701 prisoners were executed in Iran’s prisons
The Persian Year 1401 goes from March 21 2022 to March 20, 2023
APRIL 4, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - IHR Report on 200 Days of Protest Repression
List of at Risk Protesters
APRIL 4, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Haroddin Shokri executed in Qom on April 4
APRIL 2, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 48 Kurdish citizens executed during the first three months of 2023
MARCH 30, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Sahand Noor Mohammadzadeh Death Sentence Overturned
Protester’s Sentence Replaced By Imprisonment
MARCH 28, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 1 woman and 1 man executed on March 28 in Isfahan
Maryam Najjar and Hassan Bahmani
- MARCH 22, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - A woman and four men sentenced to death for spying for Israel
Nasim Namazi, Wafa Hanareh, Aram Omari Bardiani, Rahman Parhazo and Mansour Rasouli
MARCH 22, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Happy Nowruz 1402 to the political prisoners and detainees of nationwide protests
Best wishes for the new (islamic) year
- MARCH 20, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
THE DEATH PENALTY FOR DRUG OFFENCES: GLOBAL OVERVIEW 2022 (HARM REDUCTION INTERNATIONAL)
As of December 2022, Harm Reduction International (HRI) recorded at least 285 executions for drug offences globally during the year, a 118% increase from 2021, and an 850% increase from 2020.
MARCH 18, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 2 unidentified men sentenced to death in terrorist attack
On March 18
MARCH 17, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohiyedin Ebrahimi executed in Urmia on March 17
Kurdish political prisoner
MARCH 17, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 5 men and 1 woman executed in Urmia on March 17
Forohar (or Ashir) Abbasnejad, Mohammad Ayoubian, Jahanbakhsh Radloui, Hassan Omari, Nasim Niazi, and Yasin Rashidi
MARCH 17, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Not identified man executed in Khorramabad on March 17
MARCH 13, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Over 82,000 people have been granted amnesty
Including nearly 23,000 protesters
MARCH 12, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Over 100 individuals arrested for school gas attacks
MARCH 12, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Supreme court has upheld the death sentence of Habib Farajollah Chaab
MARCH 12, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 2 men executed in Shiraz on March 12
Tohid Ramezani, Nabi Langrani
MARCH 12, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Mekhan Seyfi executed in Kermanshah on March 12
158 executions since the beginning of the year
MARCH 12, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Salman Momeni executed in Arak on March 12
MARCH 11, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed in Khorramabad on March 11
Zafar Hadipour, Nader Ebrahimpour, Younes Koulemrazi + Unk.
MARCH 10, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed in Urmia on March 10
Sardar Jalalifar, Saleh Ghassemi, Mansour Abdizadeh + Unk
MARCH 10, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hossein Pourfayaz executed in Urmia on March 10
- MARCH 10, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ahmad Bajizehi executed in Shiraz on March 10
MARCH 9, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Jalal Sardari Far executed in Urmia on March 9
MARCH 7, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Meisham Bahram and Shah Bakhsh (Mahmoud) Ostadi executed in Bandar Abbas on March 7
144 executions since the beginning of the year
MARCH 6, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Bandar Abbas on March 6
Hamid Shahouzahi, Bahram Behzadi and Mohammad Amin Javashiri
MARCH 6, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Four men executed in Khorramabad on March 6
Ayat Aliari, Sohrab Sourilaki, Hassan Joudaki and … Akram
- MARCH 6, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Death sentences for 6 Men Over Attacks In Southwest
Ali Mojadam, Mohammad Reza Moghadam, Moein Khanfari, Habib Deris, Adnan Ghobishavi and Salem Mousavi.
MARCH 6, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Supreme leader Khamenei orders punishment for schoolgirl poisoning