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
- JANUARY 6, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Clashes between convicts and guards occurred at the...
Clashes between convicts and guards occurred at the Karun 4 prison in Ahvaz, where 300 inmates tried to prevent the transfer of a prisoner to the execution site, "Entekhab" newspaper reported on 31 December
- JANUARY 6, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The state-run Bahar daily reported that a young prisoner...
The state-run Bahar daily reported that a young prisoner named Hossein was sentenced to death
- JANUARY 6, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The wife of death-row Iranian academic Hashem Aghajari,...
The wife of death-row Iranian academic Hashem Aghajari, as well as several jailed liberal opposition members and journalists signed up to stand in Iran's forthcoming municipal elections, officials said
- JANUARY 5, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
A convicted murderer was given a last minute reprieve...
A convicted murderer was given a last minute reprieve by the family of the victim in Saveh, south of Tehran
- JANUARY 4, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
A moratorium on executions by stoning is only temporary,...
A moratorium on executions by stoning is only temporary, a senior Iranian conservative cleric said, while admitting the practice had hurt Tehran's image abroad
- JANUARY 1, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Iranian law imposes the death penalty for possession...
Iranian law imposes the death penalty for possession of more than 30 grams of heroin or five kilos (11 pounds) of opium
- JANUARY 1, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The Kayhan evening newspaper reported that five Iranian...
The Kayhan evening newspaper reported that five Iranian men were hanged, three of them publicly, for a range of offences including murder, rape and armed robbery
- JANUARY 1, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Iranian laws dictate that a woman's "blood money" is...
Iranian laws dictate that a woman's "blood money" is half that of a man
- JANUARY 1, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
State-run newspapers, Afarinesh and Sedaye Edalat,...
State-run newspapers, Afarinesh and Sedaye Edalat, reported that courts in Tehran sentenced to death two prisoners
- JANUARY 1, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The state-owned newspaper, Kayhan, reported that five...
The state-owned newspaper, Kayhan, reported that five prisoners had been hanged in two cities in Iran
- DECEMBER 31, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
The Entekhab newspaper reported that there had been...
The Entekhab newspaper reported that there had been rioting in a prison in Ahvaz, where about 300 prisoners prevented an inmate convicted of murdering a policeman from being taken to the gallows for execution
- DECEMBER 29, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Two Iranian women, Zahra Baghshirin and Farahnaz Yuly...
Two Iranian women, Zahra Baghshirin and Farahnaz Yuly were executed by hanging in a prison in Gachsaran in southwestern Iran for taking part in the murder of a friend's husband
- DECEMBER 19, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Stoning is to be abolished in Iran as a form of capital...
Stoning is to be abolished in Iran as a form of capital punishment, according to official assurances given to a European Union human rights delegation to Tehran
- DECEMBER 18, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
The European Union handed to Iran a list of individual...
The European Union handed to Iran a list of individual human rights cases during two days of talks on the thorny issue in Tehran, a statement from the 15-member bloc said
- DECEMBER 16, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's parliament voted a watered-down law defining...
Iran's parliament voted a watered-down law defining political offences in a bid to fix strict limits for judicial action
- DECEMBER 16, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran and the European Union kicked off their formal...
Iran and the European Union kicked off their formal dialogue on human rights in Tehran, part of landmark discussions linking negotiations on trade to thorny political issues, a European diplomat said
- DECEMBER 15, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's reformist parliament approved a bill banning...
Iran's reformist parliament approved a bill banning the torture of prisoners on after an earlier version was rejected by a hardline constitutional watchdog, parliamentarians said
- DECEMBER 14, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
A court sentenced four judicial interrogators to four...
A court sentenced four judicial interrogators to four years in jail for killing an alleged smuggler by using torture to get him to confess, Modabber newspaper reported
- DECEMBER 11, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Death row academic Hashem Aghajari filed a complaint...
Death row academic Hashem Aghajari filed a complaint against the Judiciary with the Majlis Article 90 Commission, IRNA quoted the press as saying
- DECEMBER 11, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Australia said it was "pleased" with a first round...
Australia said it was "pleased" with a first round of discussions in Tehran with Iran on thorny human rights issues, saying the talks would continue
- DECEMBER 11, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi defended capital...
Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi defended capital punishment in the country, saying it exists in many other countries, ahead of political and trade talks with the European Union
- DECEMBER 10, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Some 100 Iranian protestors staged mock executions...
Some 100 Iranian protestors staged mock executions outside a meeting of EU foreign ministers, to protest an EU decision to launch trade talks with Tehran
- DECEMBER 7, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Baton-wielding security forces arrested at least 60...
Baton-wielding security forces arrested at least 60 people in the Iranian capital, a city official said, as thousands gathered in and around Tehran University to call for political reform
- DECEMBER 4, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
In an open letter to the press, Iranian dissident academic...
In an open letter to the press, Iranian dissident academic Hashim Aghajari took on his conservative opponents, mocking his death sentence for blasphemy as a political verdict
- DECEMBER 2, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
A lawyer for an Iranian professor sentenced to death...
A lawyer for an Iranian professor sentenced to death for insulting Islam appealed the verdict, saying he was acting against his client's wishes a day before the verdict was to become final
- NOVEMBER 29, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Ayatollah Bojnurdi the head of Iran's Islamic Human...
Ayatollah Bojnurdi the head of Iran's Islamic Human Rights Commission condemned the death sentence issued against university professor Hashem Aghajari
- NOVEMBER 26, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
A court in the Islamic Republic of Iran sentenced two...
A court in the Islamic Republic of Iran sentenced two men to death for murdering a used car dealer in Tehran
- NOVEMBER 26, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Aghajari, the prominent Iranian academic condemned...
Aghajari, the prominent Iranian academic condemned to death for blasphemy refuses to appeal his sentence, his lawyer told AFP, after the judiciary said the controversial verdict will be upheld unless Hashem Aghajari lodges an appeal
- NOVEMBER 24, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's student movement bowed to pressure from ruling...
Iran's student movement bowed to pressure from ruling hardliners and called a halt to two weeks of nationwide protests in defence of a liberal academic sentenced to death
- NOVEMBER 24, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Iranian authorities slapped an outright ban on further...
Iranian authorities slapped an outright ban on further student demonstrations against the sentencing to death of a pro-reform dissident academic