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
MAY 31, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehdi Faraji executed in Isfahan on May 31
MAY 31, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ayoub Latifi executed in Kermanshah on May 31
MAY 31, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehdi Amiri-Margavi executed in Sari Prison on May 31
The news was released on July 5 by IHR
MAY 30, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unidentified man executed in Saveh
Exact place and date of execution unknown
MAY 29, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unidentified man executed in Karaj on May 29
MAY 29, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Akbar Hassanlou executed in Zanjan on May 29
MAY 29, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehdi Sarhadi executed in Isfahan on May 29
MAY 29, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Shahab … executed in Mashhad Central Prison on May 29
MAY 28, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hamidollah Sahrai executed in Chabahar on May 28
MAY 28, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Nader Gorgij executed in Zabol Prison on May 28
179 executions since the beginning of the year
MAY 25, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 8 men executed in Rajai Shahr Prison on May 25
Karim Bagheri, the football player, saved 2 men
MAY 25, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ladan Molasaeedi, a woman, executed in Qarchak on May 25
Fifth woman to be executed in 2022
- MAY 25, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - R.A. executed on May 25
Location of the execution not specified
MAY 24, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed in Gorgan Prison on 24 May 2022
Mostafa Hamidzadeh, Houshang Bagheri Alimorad (surname unknown) and Nasser Moghadam
MAY 24, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Wife of Djalali pleads for EU action
Vida Mehrannia
- MAY 23, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mossadegh Malahi executed in Minab on May 23
- MAY 23, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Unidentified man executed in Zanjan on May 23
MAY 23, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Sorkhrou and Abbas Kamali executed in Minab on May 23
MAY 23, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unidentified woman executed on 23 May in Amol prison
135th since September 2013
- MAY 22, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mohammad Morad Fazeli executed in Shirvan Prison on May 22
- MAY 22, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Elias Q. executed in Mashhad Prison on May 22
176 executions since the beginning of the year
MAY 22, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Abdolbari Rigi, and Ms Hayati, a woman, executed in Shiraz on May 22
- MAY 21, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Report of the National Council of Resistance of Iran on the prison situation
MAY 21, 2022SwedenDEATH PENALTYIRAN - The wife of Ahmadreza Djalali called on the European Union to intervene
MAY 21, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Abdollah Barahouyi executed in Zahedan on May 21
MAY 21, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Esmail Shahbakhsh executed in Zahedan on May 21
MAY 19, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ahmad Gashoul executed in Isfahan on May 19
MAY 18, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Fardin Kaleh Houyi executed in Kermanshah on May 18
The news was released on June 21 by Hengaw
MAY 18, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Farshad Nematzadeh, Mehdi Shirchian and Eshaghi executed in Amol on May 18
MAY 18, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ayat Ghasemi-Delfani executed in Karaj on May 18