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
- 9,221
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 9,221 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 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 PENALTYIRAN - 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
JULY 12, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hamed Hosseinpour executed in Maku on July 12
JULY 12, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hossein Ali Zarouni executed in Ilam on July 12
JULY 12, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 unidentified men executed in Gohardasht on July 12
JULY 11, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Musa Shahbakhsh executed in Zahedan on July 11
JULY 11, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Bakhtiar Cheraghi executed in Kermanshah on July 11
JULY 9, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hadi Shahuzehi executed in Kerman on June 9
JULY 9, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ebrahim Alizehi executed in Zahedan on June 9
JULY 9, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Two unidentified men executed in Arak on July 9
- JULY 9, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 2 women executed in Isfahan on July 9
Monireh Sayadat and Farzieh Shokrollahi
JULY 8, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Ramez Rashidi and Naeem Hashem Ghotali hanged in public on July 8
Afghan citizens charged with terrorism
JULY 6, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Abbas Rashgi and Saber Moghadami executed in Adel Abad on July 6
JULY 6, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mousa Hakimi executed in Qom on July 6
- JULY 5, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - UN: Iran Must Stop Executions Of Protesters
JULY 4, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Bandar Abbas on July 4
Names not known
JULY 2, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Yasser Golzardian executed in Khorramabad on July 2
- JULY 2, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - A woman, Afsaneh Shahiki, executed in Kerman on July 2
213 women executed since 2007
JULY 2, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Bahador Salimi executed in Qazvin on July 2
396 executions since the beginning of 2023