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
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 PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed at Shiraz Central Prison on March 9
One identified by his surname, Salarzehi
MARCH 8, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 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 - 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 3, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Vahid Mousavi executed in Rajai Shahr Prison on March 3
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"
MARCH 1, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - On unspecified date Mohammad Reza Heidari executed in Shiraz
"first week of March"
- FEBRUARY 28, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Morad Salehbeig received 74 lashes prior to being executed in Zanjan on February 28
(also Salehbeyg, Saleh-Beyg)
FEBRUARY 28, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Juvenile offender Mohammadreza Hadadi released
(Also Mohammad-Reza Haddadi)
FEBRUARY 27, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Heydar Ghorbani executed in Khorramabad on February 27
FEBRUARY 27, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Jasem Ghanbari executed in Jiroft on February 27
FEBRUARY 26, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Execution Postponed After Heart Attack
Hojat Ostad-Asyabi suffered a heart attack at the gallows in Ardabil Prison on February 26
FEBRUARY 24, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - On February 24, Ali Rezaei, 18, sentenced to death, committed suicide
In Lakan Prison, in Rasht
FEBRUARY 23, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 5 Men Executed for Murder in Rajai Shahr Prison
Hamed Azizi, Mehran Jafari, and 3 unidentified men
FEBRUARY 22, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mousa Zare executed in Isfahan Prison on February 22
The news was reported on March 10 by IHR
FEBRUARY 22, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Farshad Farzi (Farzin) executed in Ilam on February 22
- FEBRUARY 21, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 3 prisoners died of Coronavirus in Karaj Prison, 1 in Ilam
FEBRUARY 21, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unidentified Man Executed in Kashan Prison on February 21
FEBRUARY 21, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unidentified prisoner executed in Mashhad on February 21
- FEBRUARY 21, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Reza Gh. Executed in Mashhad on February 21
FEBRUARY 19, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hamed Kheradmand Executed in Zahedan on February 19
- FEBRUARY 18, 2022IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Official Decries EP’s Resolution on Death Penalty in Iran
Kazem Gharibabadi, the secretary-general of Iran’s Human Rights Office
FEBRUARY 17, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - On February 17, European Parliament adopted a resolution in Iran
On the human rights situation
FEBRUARY 17, 2022IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN: 85 MINORS IN THE DEATH ROW (AS OF NOVEMBER 2021)
UN human rights experts on 25 November 2021 strongly condemned the execution of Arman Abdolali, convicted for an alleged murder committed when he was 17, and demanded that Iran stop sentencing children to death.