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
- FEBRUARY 18, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Hashem Aghajari's lawyer rejected charges of blasphemy...
Hashem Aghajari's lawyer rejected charges of blasphemy against his client after the Iranian Judiciary announced that the veteran intellectual, whose death sentence was quashed on February 14, may face the same punishment during a new trial
- FEBRUARY 17, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Iranian dissident Hashem Aghajari, whose death sentence...
Iranian dissident Hashem Aghajari, whose death sentence for blasphemy was quashed on February 14, will be retried by the same court which ordered his execution and could face the same penalty, a judiciary spokesman said
- FEBRUARY 14, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's Supreme Court lifted the death sentence ordered...
Iran's Supreme Court lifted the death sentence ordered in the case of a university professor whose sentencing provoked nationwide demonstrations
- FEBRUARY 14, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The head of the Interior Ministry's Centre for the...
The head of the Interior Ministry's Centre for the Participation of Women announced that the most important human rights issues concerning women were that of unequal blood money and the practice of stoning to death adulteresses
- FEBRUARY 14, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN LIFTS DEATH SENTENCE ON HASHEM AGHAJARI
February 14, 2003: Iran´s Supreme Court has lifted the death sentence ordered in the case of a university professor whose sentencing provoked nationwide demonstrations.Hashem Aghajari, a history professor at Tehran´s Teachers Training University, had been
- FEBRUARY 10, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
It was reported that a recent U
It was reported that a recent U
- FEBRUARY 10, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Iranian Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi...
Iranian Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi told visiting EU Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten on 3 February that executions by stoning are seen as a way of protecting the family, state television reported
- FEBRUARY 4, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
During his meeting with the Iranian Minister for Foreign...
During his meeting with the Iranian Minister for Foreign Affairs Khamal Kharrazi and with the head of the judicial authority, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hachemi Chahroudi, European Commissioner Chris Patten expressed his concern over freedom of the press and the u
- FEBRUARY 4, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
During his meeting with the Iranian Minister for Foreign...
During his meeting with the Iranian Minister for Foreign Affairs Khamal Kharrazi and with the head of the judicial authority, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hachemi Chahroudi, European Commissioner Chris Patten expressed his concern over freedom of the press and the u
- FEBRUARY 4, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi...
Iran's Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi said that the justice system has decided to replace 'stoning ' with other punishment
- FEBRUARY 3, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The head of the Iranian Judiciary, Ayatollah Hashemi-Shahroudi,...
The head of the Iranian Judiciary, Ayatollah Hashemi-Shahroudi, in a meeting with EU Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten described the Islamic Shari'ah practice of capital punishment by stoning as a protector of the family unit
- JANUARY 30, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
In a resolution the European Parliament called for...
In a resolution the European Parliament called for the United States, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Congo and others to introduce a moratorium on executions "with a view to completely abolishing the death penalty
- JANUARY 30, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran hanged four gangsters in public after they were...
Iran hanged four gangsters in public after they were convicted for a series of kidnappings and rapes, the official IRNA news agency reported
- JANUARY 28, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Two prisoners on Iran's death row and eight other inmates...
Two prisoners on Iran's death row and eight other inmates held in Varamin prison southeast of Tehran have escaped after using teaspoons to dig a six-metre tunnel, a newspaper reported
- JANUARY 28, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The Iranian Supreme Court commuted the death sentences...
The Iranian Supreme Court commuted the death sentences of at least two former secret agents found guilty of the murders of four dissidents in 1998
- JANUARY 23, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Hedayat Mostowfi, a member of the National Council...
Hedayat Mostowfi, a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran's Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the EU's open attitude to Iran only encouraged the human rights violations
- JANUARY 22, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's foreign minister was harangued over human rights...
Iran's foreign minister was harangued over human rights by European parliamentarians and protesters in Brussels, but pleaded for more time to reform a culture deeply rooted in tradition
- JANUARY 20, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Ayatollah Mohammad Sajjadi, adviser to the State Supreme...
Ayatollah Mohammad Sajjadi, adviser to the State Supreme Court and one of three judges examining the sentence against Hashem Aghajari said that the death sentence given to the Iranian lecturer and member of the Islamic Revolution Mojahedin Organization, w
- JANUARY 17, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian court sentenced one man to death and two...
An Iranian court sentenced one man to death and two others to 10-year jail terms for cooperating with an outlawed leftist Kurdish rebel group, the official IRNA news agency reported
- JANUARY 15, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The state-owned newspaper Etemad reported that a young...
The state-owned newspaper Etemad reported that a young man named Azim received a double death sentence
- JANUARY 14, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The state-owned Jomhouri Islami daily reported that...
The state-owned Jomhouri Islami daily reported that the head of the justice department in the northern city of Noshahr had announced that a woman named Zeinab was sentenced to flogging and hanging by the local court
- JANUARY 14, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Ahmad E
Ahmad E
- JANUARY 13, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Ahmad Ali Gholestaneh, Mostapha Ghanjali and Seyed...
Ahmad Ali Gholestaneh, Mostapha Ghanjali and Seyed Khalil Pour-Anvari were executed for drug-trafficking January 9 in the courtyard of the Evine prison in Tehran, the student news agency ISNA reported
- JANUARY 13, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Karam Abdollahi, Nader Sadati and Khalil Mansouri,...
Karam Abdollahi, Nader Sadati and Khalil Mansouri, convicted of armed robbery were hanged on January 9 in the courtyard of the Evine prison in Tehran, the student news agency ISNA reported
- JANUARY 13, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The Afarinesh daily reported that a young man identified...
The Afarinesh daily reported that a young man identified as Reza was sentenced to death in Tehran
- JANUARY 12, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's reformist-held parliament approved the details...
Iran's reformist-held parliament approved the details of a law granting non-Muslim minorities the right to the same "blood money" as Muslim men
- JANUARY 11, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian court sentenced a teen-ager to death by...
An Iranian court sentenced a teen-ager to death by hanging after he was convicted for a third time of drinking alcohol, the state newspaper Iran said
- JANUARY 9, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The state-run daily Sedaye Edalat reported that two...
The state-run daily Sedaye Edalat reported that two men were sentenced to death in the southern port city of Boushehr
- JANUARY 8, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Assi Dehlavi was hanged in the south-western city of Ahwaz
Assi Dehlavi was hanged in the south-western city of Ahwaz
- JANUARY 7, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
State run newspapers reported that a young mother and...
State run newspapers reported that a young mother and her 16 year-year-old son would be hanged on charges of killing a man with "sleeping pills