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
- 8,610
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 8,610 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
SEPTEMBER 22, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 31 protesters killed by security forces
Nationwide protests for Mahsa Amini
- SEPTEMBER 19, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Sirus Sha’alani executed in Karaj on September 19
SEPTEMBER 16, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mahsa Amini passed away in hospital today
A 22-year-old woman arrested by the Guidance Patrol on September 14
SEPTEMBER 13, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Hemat Estaki and an unidentified man executed in Daran Prison
- SEPTEMBER 12, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ahmed Panahi Khanqa executed in Ardabil on September 12
- SEPTEMBER 11, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hassan Agha Mohammadi executed in Isfahan on September 11
- SEPTEMBER 11, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mehran Noormohammadi executed in Isfahan on September 11
SEPTEMBER 11, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehdi Aghosh executed in Zanjan on September 11
SEPTEMBER 10, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men and 1 woman executed in Zahedan on September 10
142nd woman to be executed in 9 years
SEPTEMBER 10, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mansour Brahui executed in Birjand on September 10
- SEPTEMBER 7, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Allah Nour Salarzehi executed in Minab Prison on September 7
- SEPTEMBER 7, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ramezan Jafarzadeh and Mohammad Mohammadi-Ghaed executed in Shiraz on September 7
- SEPTEMBER 7, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Unnamed man executed at an undisclosed prison on September 7
SEPTEMBER 7, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ghafour Nejatpour executed in Gonbad Kavous on September 7
SEPTEMBER 7, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 7 men executed in Gohardasht on September 7
3 identified as Abolfazl Shahi, Mohammad Arab and Khosro Nourbakhsh
SEPTEMBER 7, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Yar Mohammad Eshaghzehi executed in Bandar Abbas on September 7
- SEPTEMBER 6, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Unnamed man executed in Tabriz in the last days
- SEPTEMBER 6, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 7 men executed in Minab Prison on September 6
Abdolkhalegh Narouyi, Soleiman Narouyi, Abdolghafour Bahadorzadeh-Rigi, Abbas Nobakht, Mohammad Zobeiri, Mohammad Kazemi and Mohammadreza Hedayati
- SEPTEMBER 6, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hassan Haghverdizadeh and Khalghollah Fahimzadeh executed in Taybad on September 6
- SEPTEMBER 6, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Peyman Soleimani, Aziz Yarhashemi and Shahram Kakavand executed in Karaj on September 6
- SEPTEMBER 5, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 2 Iranian women sentenced to death for their sexual orientation
Zahra Sedighi Hamedani and Elham Choobdar
- SEPTEMBER 3, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mohsen Qanbarzahi and Ainullah Qanbarzahi executed in Zahedan on September 3
- SEPTEMBER 3, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Massoud Ghaed-Rahmati executed in Khorramabad on September 3
- SEPTEMBER 1, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mohammad Khosravi executed in Qom on September 1
SEPTEMBER 1, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hamid Ghareh Lar executed in Qom on September 1
25 days after his brother Ali’s execution in the same prison
SEPTEMBER 1, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hamidreza Mardani executed in Isfahan on September 1
SEPTEMBER 1, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Amputated the fingers of Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini
in Gohardasht prison in Karaj on September 1
- AUGUST 31, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mohammed Hossein Kahrari executed in Arak on August 31
AUGUST 31, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Morteza Teymoori and Mohammad-Hassan Kahrari executed in Arak on August 31
AUGUST 31, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Aref Maleki executed in Shiraz on August 31