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.
Latest news
- APRIL 16, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Forced Televised Confessions in 2025
- APRIL 16, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN A Citizen Arrested in Marvdasht for Selling VPNs
To hide Internet adresses
APRIL 16, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Suspicious Death in Custody of Protester Abbas Yavari
APRIL 16, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Manouchehr Vafaei and Navid Naghdi at Imminent Risk of Execution
APRIL 16, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 2 people arrested for “contact with foreign media”
APRIL 16, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Woman arrested for contacts with foreign media
Accused of espionage
APRIL 16, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 19-year-old protester Saghar Gholami held in legal limbo
- APRIL 15, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Report on the Arrest of Mohammad-Parsa Golchin
Olympiad Gold Medal–Winning Literature Student
- APRIL 15, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - At Least 45 people arrested for ‘contacts with foreign media’.
- APRIL 15, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Woman Arrested for sending videos to foreign media
- APRIL 15, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 6 people arrested for sending videos top foreign media
Including 2 women
APRIL 15, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Zohrabi executed in Kashan on April 15
- APRIL 14, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ehsan Hosseinipour Faces death sentence
A protester
- APRIL 14, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 8 people arrested by IRGC
‘Contacts with foreign media’
- APRIL 14, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 2 arrested for contact with foreign media
- APRIL 14, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 7 Foreign Nationals Arrested by IRGC
For having entered Iran illegally during the war
- APRIL 14, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ghazal Mawlan killed in a drone strike by IRGC
APRIL 14, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Teachers’ Union Activist Mohammad-Ali Zahmatkesh Arrested
- APRIL 14, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 50 people arrested in Tehran
For posting images of the war on social media
- APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 4 protesters sentenced to death
Mohammadreza Majidi-Asl, Bita Hemmati, Behrouz Zamaninejad, and Kourosh Zamaninejad
- APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 60 Security Cases Opened, for Espionage Charges
- APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Zeinab Shafizadeh Arrested
APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Foreword to the 2025 Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran
By Nasrin Sotoudeh
- APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 10 People Arrested for Using Starlink
APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 2025 Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran
At least 1,639 people executed
APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Thousands of people arrested in Iran for “contacts with foreign media”
The West seems concerned only with its own “freedom of expression”, not that of the Iranian people
APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Siahani and Omran Siahani Killed by IRGC
Two Teenagers
APRIL 12, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Peyvand and Borna Naeimi Under Torture to Confess to False Charges
Baha’i protesters
APRIL 12, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Eyewitness Accounts: Direct Fire and Mass Arrests in Khuzestan
Arab militias in support of government forces
- APRIL 11, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hold the Perpetrators of Political Executions Accountable
Allah-Karam Azizi and Ghasem Sahraee