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 2, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Ali Asghar and Mohammed Naghi were condemned to death...
Ali Asghar and Mohammed Naghi were condemned to death in the Iranian city of Ozgol, the Farsi language newspaper Afarinesh reported
- JANUARY 1, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran carried out at least 198 executions, including...
Iran carried out at least 198 executions, including at least 6 women and a juvenile, in 2001
- JANUARY 1, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Stoning is a pre-Islamic punishment
Stoning is a pre-Islamic punishment
- JANUARY 1, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Nayereh Tohidi, a lecturer at the University of California...
Nayereh Tohidi, a lecturer at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), in an interview with Radio Free Europe, said stoning is a double-standard punishment: "There is a double standard here, even though the practice is applied to both men and w
- DECEMBER 19, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Three Iranians, convicted of murder, were sent to the...
Three Iranians, convicted of murder, were sent to the gallows at the Tehran Qasr Prison, while the fourth was pardoned while the noose was on his neck
- NOVEMBER 17, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian hanged for murder was cut down alive from...
An Iranian hanged for murder was cut down alive from the gallows after four minutes, following a pardon granted by his victim's family
- NOVEMBER 11, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Tehran's Revolutionary Court opened the biggest political...
Tehran's Revolutionary Court opened the biggest political trial to be held in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, accusing more than 30 members of the banned Freedom Movement, including two former ministers, of anti-state activities
- NOVEMBER 11, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
A number of Iranian film-makers whose movies have dealt...
A number of Iranian film-makers whose movies have dealt with Iran's revolution and the status of its women, have had their works censored or banned
- NOVEMBER 11, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence of...
Iran's Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence of Qolam Reza Ameli, Kayhan newspaper reported
- NOVEMBER 8, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Gholamreza Ameli was sentenced to death for the attempted...
Gholamreza Ameli was sentenced to death for the attempted murder of the then head of the Justice Department of Tehran Province, Ali Razini
- OCTOBER 29, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Two Iranian men, Feraydoun Gorji and Mohammadyar Zahouri-Rad,...
Two Iranian men, Feraydoun Gorji and Mohammadyar Zahouri-Rad, were hanged for banditry
- OCTOBER 27, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Iranian police said they had renewed a crackdown on...
Iranian police said they had renewed a crackdown on satellite dishes after the authorities blamed a spate of riots on television broadcasts by exiled opposition groups
- OCTOBER 25, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The self-confessed serial killer of 16 prostitutes...
The self-confessed serial killer of 16 prostitutes in Iran's holy city of Mashhad, Saeed Hanayi, was sentenced to death by hanging
- OCTOBER 24, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The opposition Iranian "Resistance Council" called...
The opposition Iranian "Resistance Council" called on Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel to cancel his talks in Iran
- OCTOBER 22, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Iranian authorities hanged three men, Mohsen, Mehrdad...
Iranian authorities hanged three men, Mohsen, Mehrdad and Ali-Reza, for rape
- OCTOBER 4, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's former prosecutor-general Ayatollah Morteza...
Iran's former prosecutor-general Ayatollah Morteza Moqtada'i defended the execution of Islamic punishments in public, saying they help deter the rise of crime in society
- SEPTEMBER 18, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian woman, convicted of murdering her husband...
An Iranian woman, convicted of murdering her husband in complicity with her paramour, has ended up at the gallows in Tehran's Qasr Prison
- SEPTEMBER 15, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Two Iranians have been sentenced to death and 23 of...
Two Iranians have been sentenced to death and 23 of their accomplices given jail terms for operating a prostitution ring in the holy city of Qom
- SEPTEMBER 13, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The Tehran's Justice administration hit back at those...
The Tehran's Justice administration hit back at those opposing the public execution of the court sentences, saying their opposition is "politically-biased"
- SEPTEMBER 13, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The reformist Iranian journalist, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin,...
The reformist Iranian journalist, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, serving a 30-month jail term since April 2000 for allegedly insulting Islam, was freed on bail, sources close to him said
- SEPTEMBER 12, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian, sentenced to death for shooting of a mother...
An Iranian, sentenced to death for shooting of a mother and her son, was hanged in public in northeastern Tehran before the eyes of hundreds of onlookers one week after his brother ended up at the gallows on the same charge
- SEPTEMBER 11, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran publicly hanged a man for kidnapping and raping...
Iran publicly hanged a man for kidnapping and raping a teenage girl
- 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