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
- 9,162
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 9,162 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 30, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Gul Mohammad Naroi executed in Zahedan on April 30
APRIL 29, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mahmoud Rahmani executed in Iranshahr on April 29
APRIL 29, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Eid Mohammad Shadman executed on April 29
Not clear whether in Iranshahr or Zahedan
- APRIL 29, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 2 men executed in Zahedan on April 29
Nematollah Rigi Ladiz and Abdolsattar Shahuzehi
APRIL 29, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unidentified woman executed in Zahedan on April 29
APRIL 27, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - KHRN annual report on the situation of human rights in Iran
Focused on the Kurdish ethnic group
APRIL 26, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Jamshid Sharmahd’s death sentence confirmed by the Supreme Court
German-Iranian citizen
APRIL 26, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Plea to Save Ahmadreza Djalali
Iranian-Swedish Scholar in Death Row
APRIL 24, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Chahargosheh executed in Gohardasht on April 24
APRIL 24, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ahmad Nikouyi executed in Gohardasht on April 24
APRIL 17, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Nayeb Askari sentences to death for second time
Kurdish political prisoner
APRIL 13, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - IHR Report on the Death Penalty in 2022
At least 582 people were executed in 2022 (646 according to HoC)
APRIL 12, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Italy. Press conference in the Italian Parliament for a change in the policy on Iran
Lucio Malan, Giulio Terzi di Santagata, Elisabetta Gardini, Emanuele Pozzolo, Fabrizio Benzoni, Monica Ciaburro, Marco Scurria e Maryam Rajavi
APRIL 9, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani released from prison
APRIL 7, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Protester Mojahed Kourkour Sentenced to Death
Cover-up for the state killing of 10 years-old boy Kian Pirfalak
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 PENALTY
IRAN - 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 PENALTYIRAN - Happy Nowruz 1402 to the political prisoners and detainees of nationwide protests
Best wishes for the new (islamic) year
MARCH 22, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 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 20, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYTHE 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