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 17, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ghobad Narouyi executed in Birjand on May 17
MAY 17, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Khalil Rezaeipour executed in Qom on May 17
MAY 17, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ghobad Khodakarami executed in Khorramabad on May 17
MAY 17, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for Djalali
MAY 15, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehrab Salehi executed in Yazd on May 15
Probably a juvenile at the time of the alleged crime
MAY 14, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Bameri executed in Iranshahr on May 14
The man was unable to pay the €23.000 diya (reparation)
MAY 14, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Farshad Gamshadzehi, Esmail Jahantigh and Mansour Barahouyi executed in Zahedan on May 14
Farshad Gamshadzehi may have been a juvenile offender
MAY 12, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hossein Fartash executed in Isfahan on May 12
143 executions in 2022
MAY 11, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mostafa Kh. executed in Mashhad on May 11
- MAY 10, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Unnamed man executed in Sabzevar Prison on May 10
138 executions in 2022
- MAY 10, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Belgian Court of Appeals’ Sentence on Bomb Plot at Iranian Resistance Rally in Paris
MAY 9, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Europe must make the serious consequences of executing Ahmadreza Djalali clear
To Islamic Republic officials
MAY 8, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Four men executed in Shiraz on May 8
Abbas Pajmordeh, Ali Pajmordeh, Mohammad Gholamhosseini and Ali Hossein Pahan
MAY 7, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Yousef Naderi and Abolfazl Hassan Moradi Executed in Qom on May 7
- MAY 7, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 3 Men and a Woman Executed in Zahedan on May 7
The number of women executed in Iran since the summer of 2013 reaches 132
- MAY 4, 2022SwedenDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Sweden. Ahmadreza Djalali at Imminent Risk of Execution
The international community should react in time
MAY 2, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Maryam Kargardastjerdi, a special woman
She saved 32 men from the gallows
MAY 2, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Top official on women’s affairs encourages child marriage
Ensieh Khazali
MAY 2, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Sweden. Iran summoned Sweden’s ambassador
following a request by Swedish prosecutors for life imprisonment for Hamid Noury
APRIL 28, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - IHR Annual Report on the Death Penalty - 2021
At least 333 people were executed in 2021
- APRIL 27, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Fakhreddin Waledi and Hossein Joushan in executed in Isfahan on April 27
APRIL 25, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi Sentenced to 16 Years Imprisonment
Earlier threats to sentence them to death
APRIL 14, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Death in Custody of Protester Mehdi Salehi Ghaleh Shahrokhi
Iran Human Rights Calls for International Fact-Finding Mission
APRIL 12, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Narges Mohammadi and Aliyeh Motallebzadeh Arrested
And Sent Back to Qarchak Prison
APRIL 11, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Golmohammad ... executed in the Prison of Karaj City on April 11
APRIL 11, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Milad Jafari killed of torture in Tehran
During detention by Tehran intelligence police
APRIL 10, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3rd Public Execution Sentence In Less Than A Month
Name not disclosed
- APRIL 9, 2022SwedenDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ahmadreza Djalali Beaten by Evin Prison Officials
APRIL 9, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Christian converts sentenced to prison and fines
APRIL 6, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - At least 50 political prisoners await execution
A report from Javanehha