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
- 9,164
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 9,164 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
OCTOBER 5, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mariano Giustino posted on Twitter the video of an extrajudicial execution
Correspondent from Turkey of Radio Radicale and a good friend of Hands Off Cain
OCTOBER 5, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Names and details of 182 martyrs of freedom movement
OCTOBER 3, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 2 prisoners executed in Shiraz prison on October 3
Identities not confirmed
OCTOBER 2, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 5 men executed in Mashhad on October 2
Asif Shibak, Saeed Shibak, Ramadan Mazar Zahi and Awad Bilrani
- OCTOBER 2, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 4 prisoners executed in Shiraz prison on October 2
Hashim Mahmoodzadeh, Yusuf Ali Chalani, Abbas Fatahalian, Haider Ramezani
OCTOBER 2, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Iran Protests: Death Toll Rises to 133
40 Killed in Zahedan’s “Bloody Friday”
SEPTEMBER 29, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Qasem Shah Bakhsh executed in Zahedan on September 29
SEPTEMBER 28, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Morteza Brahui executed in Zahedan on September 28
SEPTEMBER 28, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Kiomars Parvaneh and Hasan Hojjati executed in Qazvin on September 28
SEPTEMBER 26, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - At least 76 protesters killed by security forces
On the 11th day of unrest after the killing of the young Masha Amini
- SEPTEMBER 24, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 54 protesters killed by security forces
8th day of protests for Mahsa Amini
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 PENALTYIRAN - Ahmed Panahi Khanqa executed in Ardabil on September 12
SEPTEMBER 11, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehdi Aghosh executed in Zanjan on September 11
SEPTEMBER 11, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hassan Agha Mohammadi executed in Isfahan on September 11
SEPTEMBER 11, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehran Noormohammadi executed in Isfahan 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 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 7, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Allah Nour Salarzehi executed in Minab Prison on September 7
SEPTEMBER 7, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unnamed man executed at an undisclosed prison on September 7
SEPTEMBER 7, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ramezan Jafarzadeh and Mohammad Mohammadi-Ghaed executed in Shiraz on September 7
SEPTEMBER 6, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unnamed man executed in Tabriz in the last days
SEPTEMBER 6, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 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