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
MARCH 16, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed at Gohardasht Prison on March 16
Gholam Ali Khaurgir, Abbas Khaurgir, and Mohsen Jandaghi
MARCH 16, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Zubayd … executed in Isfahan on March 16, 2022
(unknown surname)
MARCH 16, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed in Shiraz Central Prison on March 16
Ali Sahandi, Mohammad Hossein Sahandi, Sadegh Sahebi and Bashir Kaboli
MARCH 16, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Yousef Hashemi executed in Qazvin Prison on March 16
MARCH 16, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Bashir Kameli executed on March 16
In Adelabad prison, in Shiraz
MARCH 16, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hamid Rastegar and Gholamreza Paki executed in Isfahan on March 16
MARCH 15, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Peyman Babakhani and Mir Ali Hosseini executed on March 15
In Orumiyeh Central Prison
MARCH 15, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Bozorgzadeh executed in Bushehr on March 15
MARCH 15, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hatem Ozdemir sentenced to death
Kurdish political prisoner
- MARCH 14, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - A man and woman executed on March 14
In Shiraz Central Prison
- MARCH 14, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ebrahim Nasirkhah executed in Urmia Prison on March 14
MARCH 13, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Political prisoner Firooz Moosa-Lou sentenced to death
For membership in the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
MARCH 13, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hafizollah Rakhshani executed in Zahedan Prison on March 13
- MARCH 13, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 4 men executed in Shiraz prison on March 13
Jamshid Fadaei, Hossein Mehrabani, and 2 not identified
- MARCH 13, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 2 men executed in Shiraz Central Prison on March 13
One identified as Najaf Anjom
MARCH 12, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Alam Yarahmedzehi executed in Khash prison on March 12
(Also Yar-Ahmadzehi)
MARCH 10, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Sweden renunciates to try two suspected Iranian secret agents
- MARCH 10, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Shahab … executed at Shiraz Central Prison on March 10
Surname not known
MARCH 10, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Nizam Ali Mirzaei executed in Miandoab Prison on March 10
MARCH 10, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Sepideh Qoliyan is gravely ill
The prisoner of conscience needs of urgent medical care
- MARCH 9, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 4 men executed at Shiraz Central Prison on March 9
One identified by his surname, Salarzehi
- MARCH 8, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 17 Women Executed in 2021
2 Hanged by Own Children
MARCH 7, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Human rights defender Narges Mohammadi has to return to prison tomorrow (March 8).
After a brief furlough following heart surgery
- MARCH 3, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Vahid Mousavi executed in Rajai Shahr Prison on March 3
- MARCH 3, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Abbas Naderi executed in Dezful Prison on March 3
MARCH 3, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Firouz Bahrami Astaraki executed in Dezful Prison on March 3
For the murder of the commander of a SSF station, Abbas Naderi
MARCH 2, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Akbar Shahsavand executed in Isfahan on March 2
MARCH 2, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Seyyed Vahid Tabataba’I executed in Gohardasht Prison on March 2
77 executions since the beginning of the year
- MARCH 1, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - On unspecified date Ahmad Salarzehi and Naeem Shahbakhsh executed in Shiraz
"second week of March"
- MARCH 1, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - On unspecified date 3 men executed in Shiraz
Fahim Afghani, Mehrdad Moqaddas and Hassan Gholam Shahi "in the second week of March"