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
- SEPTEMBER 10, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The European Union held its highest-level meeting with...
The European Union held its highest-level meeting with Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, pressing for new economic ties in defiance of America's insistence on sanctions against companies investing there
- SEPTEMBER 5, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian, sentenced to death for the fatal shooting...
An Iranian, sentenced to death for the fatal shooting of a mother and her son, was hanged in public in northeastern Tehran before the eyes of hundreds of onlookers
- AUGUST 30, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian sentenced to death for murder was executed...
An Iranian sentenced to death for murder was executed in Tehran's Qasr Prison at dawn
- AUGUST 29, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
A young Iranian bandit, convicted of having stabbed...
A young Iranian bandit, convicted of having stabbed to death his foreman, ended up hanging on the gallows
- AUGUST 19, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The Iranian news agency IRNA reported that Abbas Makhyuri,...
The Iranian news agency IRNA reported that Abbas Makhyuri, a man convicted of murdering his cousin and her four-year-old son, was publicly hanged at dawn
- AUGUST 18, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The Iranian news agency IRNA reported that Hamid Qorbanipur...
The Iranian news agency IRNA reported that Hamid Qorbanipur and Sa'id Moradian, convicted of murdering a teacher, were publicly hanged in the western city of Lorestan
- AUGUST 16, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Three armed robbers, sentenced to death by a revolutionary...
Three armed robbers, sentenced to death by a revolutionary court, were hanged in public at dawn
- AUGUST 16, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
A man named Vali Hezar-Asb, from the Khavaran District...
A man named Vali Hezar-Asb, from the Khavaran District of Tehran, was publicly hanged in a football field opposite the Khavaran cultural centre
- AUGUST 15, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Reza Nadi, 21, and Kazem Alayemi, 35, were publicly...
Reza Nadi, 21, and Kazem Alayemi, 35, were publicly hanged after being convicted of having murdered three jewellers and one student
- AUGUST 12, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Iranian news agency IRNA reported that a 31 year old,...
Iranian news agency IRNA reported that a 31 year old, unnamed Iranian man, who had been sentenced to death for murder was publicly hanged at dawn
- AUGUST 6, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian man arrested on suspicion of killing prostitutes...
An Iranian man arrested on suspicion of killing prostitutes in the northeastern city of Mashhad admitted to sexually molesting his victims prior to strangling them to death
- AUGUST 5, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
An armed Afghan bandit, sentenced to death for clashes...
An armed Afghan bandit, sentenced to death for clashes with Iranian police and carrying narcotics, was hanged in the northeastern city of Sabzevar in Khorasan Province, the Persian daily Jam-e Jam said
- AUGUST 4, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
A convicted murderer was hanged in the central city...
A convicted murderer was hanged in the central city of Isfahan, the sixth execution made public in less than a week, the conservative Qods daily reported
- AUGUST 2, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
A gang of five Iranians, sentenced to death for kidnapping...
A gang of five Iranians, sentenced to death for kidnapping and rape, were hanged in Gorgan, in the Golestan province in northern Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported
- JULY 28, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Ahmad Samanzehi, an armed Afghan bandit, sentenced...
Ahmad Samanzehi, an armed Afghan bandit, sentenced to death by an Iranian revolutionary court for illegal possession of prohibited drugs, was hanged at dawn in northeastern Iran
- JULY 25, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian man, sentenced to death for murder, was...
An Iranian man, sentenced to death for murder, was hanged in public in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, a local source said
- JULY 25, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
MP Abdolnaser Qavami, head of the Majlis Judicial Committee,...
MP Abdolnaser Qavami, head of the Majlis Judicial Committee, said Islamic punishments should not be carried out in public
- JULY 24, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's supreme court approved the death sentence for...
Iran's supreme court approved the death sentence for three customs officials accused of being "economic terrorists," the afternoon Kayhan paper reported
- JULY 18, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
A convicted murderer was hanged in the southern city...
A convicted murderer was hanged in the southern city of Shiraz, bringing to nine the number of executions made public in Iran on the same day, the conservative Jaam-e Jam paper reported
- JULY 18, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Eight Iranians sentenced to death for murder were hanged...
Eight Iranians sentenced to death for murder were hanged at dawn in Tehran's Ghasr prison, jail authorities said
- JULY 14, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The head of the Fars Province judiciary, Hoseyn'ali...
The head of the Fars Province judiciary, Hoseyn'ali Amiri, told IRNA news agency that Fereydun Gorji, Mohammadyar Zohurirad and Zarqam Kazemi, three members of an armed band, had been sentenced to death by a Shiraz revolutionary court's judge earlier in t
- JULY 11, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International voiced its outrage at the reported...
Amnesty International voiced its outrage at the reported stoning to death of an Iranian woman at Evin prison in Tehran, despite its worldwide appeals for 30-year-old MaryamAyoubi's death sentence to be commuted
- JULY 11, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
A woman, sentenced to death for murder and adultery,...
A woman, sentenced to death for murder and adultery, was stoned to death in Tehran's Evin prison, a judiciary source said
- JULY 5, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Adnan Maleknejad, 26, convicted of murdering a man...
Adnan Maleknejad, 26, convicted of murdering a man five years ago, was hanged at dawn in the yard of a prison in Ilam in western Iran, IRNA said
- JULY 4, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Nayereh Tohidi, a lecturer at the University of California...
Nayereh Tohidi, a lecturer at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), says stoning is a double-standard punishment: "There is a double standard here, even though the practice is applied to both men and women, because it is usually a punishment
- JULY 3, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Three armed drug-traffickers, sentenced to death by...
Three armed drug-traffickers, sentenced to death by a revolutionary court, were hanged at dawn in public in the southeastern city of Zahedan, that borders neighbouring leading drug-producer Afghanistan
- JULY 3, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian woman convicted for murder was hanged in...
An Iranian woman convicted for murder was hanged in public in the southwestern Lorestan province, the state IRNA news agency reported
- JULY 1, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Two Iranians, Mehdi Varmazyari and Safar Shah-Hasanlu,...
Two Iranians, Mehdi Varmazyari and Safar Shah-Hasanlu, were publicly hanged at dawn
- JUNE 28, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
A Tehran revolutionary court sentenced to death three...
A Tehran revolutionary court sentenced to death three members of the same family, including a woman, for attempting to hijack an airliner to the United States, the official news agency IRNA said
- JUNE 27, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
A senior official with the interior ministry complained...
A senior official with the interior ministry complained that only 233 drug traffickers were hanged in the entire country in the calendar year 1378 (March 1999-2000)