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
- 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)
- JUNE 27, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
A Tehran court sentenced six members of a notorious...
A Tehran court sentenced six members of a notorious gang of robbers to death, the Persian daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami reported
- JUNE 24, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Two members of a "religious fundamentalist network"...
Two members of a "religious fundamentalist network" accused of "armed actions" in Iran including an attack on a senior court official were sentenced to death, the head of Tehran's revolutionary court said
- JUNE 20, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Seven convicted Iranian murderers were to be hanged...
Seven convicted Iranian murderers were to be hanged simultaneously in Tehran's eastern Qasr prison, but three managed to escape death just minutes ahead of the execution
- JUNE 19, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Hassab Abbas Hosseinzadeh, convicted of murder and...
Hassab Abbas Hosseinzadeh, convicted of murder and drug trafficking, was hanged in public in the western province of Lorestan
- JUNE 19, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance...
The Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said the number of executions officially announced by the mullah's regime since the beginning of 2001 is 134
- JUNE 18, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
An Afghan sentenced for armed robbery, multiple rape...
An Afghan sentenced for armed robbery, multiple rape and kidnappings and terrorist activities was beheaded in public
- JUNE 17, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
A drug trafficker was hanged for killing a member of...
A drug trafficker was hanged for killing a member of the Islamic Basij militia forces in the northeastern border province of Khorassan, the afternoon Kayhan paper reported
- JUNE 16, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
State television reported that twelve drug traffickers...
State television reported that twelve drug traffickers were sentenced to death