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
- JULY 30, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Two Iranians convicted of murder were hanged in Tehran's...
Two Iranians convicted of murder were hanged in Tehran's Ghasr prison, the government daily Iran reported
- JULY 22, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
"Several days ago, the Tabriz Revolutionary Court ruled...
"Several days ago, the Tabriz Revolutionary Court ruled that a leader of the student movement, Ms Faramaz Mohammadi, be executed," the Azerbaijani newspaper Xalq Qazeti reported
- JULY 19, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The Iranian newspaper Iran web site reported that the...
The Iranian newspaper Iran web site reported that the death sentences of five people were to be carried out in public on the 19th and 20th of July
- JULY 1, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Two men, found guilt of armed robbery and rape, were...
Two men, found guilt of armed robbery and rape, were hanged publicly in the south-western Iranian province of Khuzestan, the conservative evening daily al-Kahyan reported
- JUNE 23, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran insisted that it wanted France to extradite members...
Iran insisted that it wanted France to extradite members of an armed opposition group arrested in a major roundup of the exile organisation
- JUNE 20, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a prominent jurist sitting...
Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a prominent jurist sitting on both the Guardians Council and Expediency Council, Iran's two top political oversight bodies, called on Iran's hard-line judiciary to treat "rioters" arrested during 10 nights of anti-regime protests
- JUNE 16, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Two members of the Peoples Mujahedeen who have lived...
Two members of the Peoples Mujahedeen who have lived in Britain as political refugees for decades were recently arrested in Syria and handed over to the clerical regime in Tehran, the Iranian opposition movement said
- JUNE 1, 2003Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Two Iranian drug smugglers were sentenced to death...
Two Iranian drug smugglers were sentenced to death and four to life in jail in Saudi Arabia after they set fire to their boat loaded with nearly a tonne of hashish during a police chase at sea, Gulf News said
- MAY 28, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The Halabjah Centre against Anfal and Genocide of the...
The Halabjah Centre against Anfal and Genocide of the Kurdish People condemned the execution of three citizens from Iranian Kurdistan by the country's authorities
- MAY 27, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The conservative Iranian daily Kayhan reported that...
The conservative Iranian daily Kayhan reported that Ghassem Abdollahi, a 47 year old Afghani, had been publicly hanged for murder in the south-western town of Poldokhtar
- MAY 27, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
It was reported that leading Iranian cleric Grand Ayatollah...
It was reported that leading Iranian cleric Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi issued an edict ordering judges not to impose executions by stoning
- MAY 20, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Two brothers convicted of drug smuggling were publicly...
Two brothers convicted of drug smuggling were publicly hanged in a park in eastern Tehran
- MAY 13, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Hussein Turkzadeh, alias Hossein Balouch, was executed...
Hussein Turkzadeh, alias Hossein Balouch, was executed in Kerman for murdering nine people, including his 16-year-old wife, and drug trafficking, a few years after escaping while serving a 25-year jail sentence for drug offences
- MAY 13, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Eight people were hanged in the northwest city of Mashhad...
Eight people were hanged in the northwest city of Mashhad for offences ranging from rape and murder to kidnapping women and homosexuality
- MAY 13, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian man convicted of murdering two fellow Iranians...
An Iranian man convicted of murdering two fellow Iranians with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, as well as three counts of rape, was beheaded with a sword in the south-eastern province of Sistan Baluchestan bordering Pakistan
- MAY 11, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Six men accused of a series of five murders to uphold...
Six men accused of a series of five murders to uphold Islamic morality in Iran's south-eastern city of Kerman were sentenced to death, the lawyer of one of the victims said
- MAY 5, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's Supreme Court confirmed the death sentences...
Iran's Supreme Court confirmed the death sentences handed down to eight members of a kidnapping gang that operated in the northeastern city of Mashhad, the Qods newspaper reported
- APRIL 28, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
A convicted armed robber was publicly hanged in the...
A convicted armed robber was publicly hanged in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahwaz, the Entekhab daily reported
- APRIL 28, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Soheil Salehi Asl-Soreh, a convicted armed robber,...
Soheil Salehi Asl-Soreh, a convicted armed robber, was publicly hanged in the south-western Iranian city of Ahwaz
- APRIL 17, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The website of the Iranian daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami...
The website of the Iranian daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami reported that verdicts issued against five persons condemned to death for rape and murder had been implemented at Tehran's Qasr Prison
- APRIL 1, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The April issue of the Women in Iran magazine reported...
The April issue of the Women in Iran magazine reported that the death sentence issued on October 26, 2002 to a man who beheaded his daughter was commuted to three years imprisonment
- MARCH 20, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The EU External Relations Council expresses serious...
The EU External Relations Council expresses serious worries at Iran's violations of human rights, particularly the lack of respect for freedom of expression, attacks against the Press, the imprisonment of journalists, intellectuals and students, applicati
- MARCH 20, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The EU External Relations Council expresses serious...
The EU External Relations Council expresses serious worries at Iran's violations of human rights, particularly the lack of respect for freedom of expression, attacks against the Press, the imprisonment of journalists, intellectuals and students, applicati
- MARCH 19, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Two convicted armed robbers were publicly hanged in...
Two convicted armed robbers were publicly hanged in the western city of Khorramabad, the Persian daily Kayhan reported
- MARCH 15, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Dissident Iranian professor Hashem Aghajari, under...
Dissident Iranian professor Hashem Aghajari, under sentence of death for blasphemy, rejected a court order for his mental health to be examined by doctors, his wife said
- MARCH 12, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The Aftab-e Yazd daily reported that students at the...
The Aftab-e Yazd daily reported that students at the Tarbiat-e Modarres teacher training university in Tehran had signed a petition calling for the unconditional release of academic dissident Hashem Aghajari sentenced to death for blasphemy
- MARCH 5, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian court upheld on appeal a seven-year sentence...
An Iranian court upheld on appeal a seven-year sentence against a reformist cleric, initially sentenced to death for saying women should be free to decide whether to wear a veil, judicial sources said
- MARCH 2, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Mohammad Golabi, a member of the Iranian Kurdish group...
Mohammad Golabi, a member of the Iranian Kurdish group Komala and of the Iranian Communist Party, was executed in the central prison of Iran's western City of Saghez
- FEBRUARY 25, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Three Iranian armed robbers were hanged, two on February...
Three Iranian armed robbers were hanged, two on February 24 in the south-western city of Ahwaz, and one in Tehran on February 16, Iranian newspapers reported
- FEBRUARY 22, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
According to a statement issued by the Kurdistan Revolutionary...
According to a statement issued by the Kurdistan Revolutionary Union Party, in Sulaymaniyah the Islamic Republic of Iran executed the Sasan Ali Kan'an in prison in the city of Sinah