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
- 9,142
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 9,142 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
- DECEMBER 26, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Abdulrahman Nahtani executed in Shiraz on November 26
DECEMBER 26, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Karim Khojasteh Sentenced to Death for Hanging a Protest Banner
DECEMBER 25, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - On 24 December, Iran reached and exceeded 2100 hangings since the beginning of 2025
DECEMBER 25, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in various prisons on December 25
Amin Safari, Majid Khani, Heshmat Beigi
DECEMBER 25, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Murad Karimi-Galeh and Nowruz Khalafi executed in Shushtar on December 25
DECEMBER 24, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Zahra Khanzadeh and Amir Azizi executed in Mashhad on December 24
64th woman in 2025
DECEMBER 24, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Yaghoub Karimpour sentenced to death for “espionage for Israel"
- DECEMBER 24, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 12 men executed in various prisons on December 24
Masoud Moradi, Yaghoob Masoumi, Mohammad-Mehdi Adavi, Ebrahim Alizadeh, Mehdi Rajabali Zadeh, Nouraddin Panahi, Mohammad Nourian, Khodakaram Safapour, Nemat Khosravi, Noushad Kazemian, Nazir ... and Ayoub Dehqani
- DECEMBER 24, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 4 men executed in various prisons on December 24
Yarmohammad Saljouqi, Jahanshah Rashidian, Behrouz Sheikhi, … Rastegari
- DECEMBER 24, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mostafa Keifari and Sohrab Majidi executed on December 24
20 executions on December 24
DECEMBER 24, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Eskandar Bakhshoudeh executed in Isfahan on December 24
- DECEMBER 23, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Several people with Swedish-Iranian citizenship have been taken hostage by the Ministry of Intelligence
Report from Maryam Pezeshki, an Iranian artist and a friend of Hands off Cain
DECEMBER 23, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Senior Military Official: 2,000 Arrested on Espionage Charges
DECEMBER 23, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mahdieh Keyhani executed in Hamedan on December 23
DECEMBER 23, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - The execution of Javad Vafaei has been suspended
Political prisoner
- DECEMBER 23, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 9 men executed in various prisons on December 23
Karim Yousefi, Saman Barzegar, Yazdan Jozipour, Safarali Sadeghi, Nejat Yari, Manouchehr Mahaki, Houshang Amiri, Qanbar Farhadi, Shirzad Chamani
- DECEMBER 23, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 6 men executed in various prisons on December 23
Sepehr Moradi, Pejman Saeedi, + 4.
DECEMBER 23, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 400 influential women urge to halt execution of Zahra Tabari
DECEMBER 23, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Yaser Ghoreishi and Mohammadreza Nikkhah executed in Ghaemshahr on December 23
DECEMBER 23, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 9 men executed in various prisons on December 23
Mohammad Hassan Sharafi, Emad Asaf, Afshin Tusi, Habib Amouri, Naser Jannatpour, Rastin Karami, Jalal Taheri, Milad Norouzi, Yadollah Almasi
DECEMBER 23, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Qazvin on December 23
Mohammadjafar Babaei, Asghar Tavakoli, Ebrahim Hakimi
DECEMBER 23, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - The 100th Week of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign
In 55 Prisons Across Iran
- DECEMBER 22, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence of Mehrab Abdollahzadeh
DECEMBER 22, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 8 men executed in various prisons on December 22
- DECEMBER 22, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mohammadreza Madadi and Kazem Hamidi executed in Gorgan on December 22
- DECEMBER 22, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Taher Bastani executed in Isfahan on December 22
- DECEMBER 22, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 3 men executed in Isfahan on December 22
Nariman Mohammadi, Eskandar Bakhshoudeh, Taher Bastani
- DECEMBER 21, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 9 men executed in various prisons on December 21
Fariborz Ghasemi, Reza Dastar, Kazem Sourian, Vahid Pazouki, Ali Mohammad Koushki, Amir Mohammad Jadidi, Fardin Khani, Ebrahim Mashayekhi + 1
- DECEMBER 21, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Morad Sheghnaei and Mohammad Babrian executed in Taybad on December 21
- DECEMBER 21, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Rastin Karami executed in Sanandaj on December 21