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
- 9,141
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 9,141 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
- JUNE 7, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The overwhelming majority of the Iranian people will...
The overwhelming majority of the Iranian people will boycott the mullahs' election farce, Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said in a statement
- JUNE 6, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
It was reported that Iran's revolution court sentenced...
It was reported that Iran's revolution court sentenced to death Gholam Reza Ameli, the gang leader of an ultra-orthodox group engaged in a spate of terrorist attacks
- JUNE 4, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The Iranian President Mohammad Khatami voiced opposition...
The Iranian President Mohammad Khatami voiced opposition to a call for executing a death decree against British author Salman Rushdie
- MAY 29, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Mehrdad Yusefi, an 18-year-old man, was hanged in the...
Mehrdad Yusefi, an 18-year-old man, was hanged in the western city of Ilam after the Supreme Court upheld a death sentence issued by a lower court for killing a friend two years later
- MAY 22, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Mohammad Reza Pedram, 56, a former air force officer...
Mohammad Reza Pedram, 56, a former air force officer and an alleged CIA agent was hanged after the supreme court upheld the death sentence passed against him by a military court
- MAY 21, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian woman convicted of acting in pornographic...
An Iranian woman convicted of acting in pornographic films was stoned to death in the prison where she had been held for eight years
- MAY 16, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
A 38-year-old Iranian woman, identified only by her...
A 38-year-old Iranian woman, identified only by her first name, Robabeh, was sentenced to be stoned to death under Iran's Islamic law for murdering her husband
- MAY 15, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Branch 1601 of the criminal court ordered the amputation...
Branch 1601 of the criminal court ordered the amputation of a young man's right hand fingers and condemned him to death, the Javan daily reported
- MAY 13, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's Revolutionary Court gave heavy sentences, including...
Iran's Revolutionary Court gave heavy sentences, including the death penalty, to some 30 members of a group of Shi'ite Muslim activists charged with subversion, the Tosea daily said
- MAY 12, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Two convicted murderers were hanged in Fat'hol Mobin...
Two convicted murderers were hanged in Fat'hol Mobin Square in the southwestern city of Dezful
- MAY 8, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
A 37-year-old gay Iranian man who has overstayed his...
A 37-year-old gay Iranian man who has overstayed his visa, is fighting to stay in Japan out of fear of a death sentence if sent back to his home country
- APRIL 25, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Four Afghan drug traffickers were hanged in Birjand,...
Four Afghan drug traffickers were hanged in Birjand, in Iran's northeastern Khorassan province
- APRIL 24, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The UN Human Rights Commission adopted a resolution...
The UN Human Rights Commission adopted a resolution (21 in favour, 17 against and 15 abstentions) tabled by the European Union expressing concern for continued human rights violations in Iran
- APRIL 16, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Five drug-traffickers, sentenced to death by a revolution...
Five drug-traffickers, sentenced to death by a revolution court were hanged in public in the northeastern city of Birjand
- APRIL 5, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The death sentences issued to four men who tried in...
The death sentences issued to four men who tried in 1998 to sell Dh4 million worth of hashish to an undercover policeman have been upheld by the Dubai Court of Cassation
- MARCH 19, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Five people, included a woman, involved in a "ring...
Five people, included a woman, involved in a "ring of drug-traffickers" in Tehran's Khak-e Sefid District, were executed in public after being sentenced to death the day before by Branch 27 of Tehran's Islamic Revolution Court
- MARCH 8, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Mohammad Javad Reza'i, Asghar Ramazani and Ahmad Baqerian,...
Mohammad Javad Reza'i, Asghar Ramazani and Ahmad Baqerian, sentenced to death in the central city of Shahin-Shahr on charges of "kidnapping, rape and aiding and abetting murder", won a last-minute reprieve after they asked for pardon at the gallows
- MARCH 2, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The annual report of the American State Department...
The annual report of the American State Department described the death sentences given to smugglers as being tantamount to human rights' violations in Iran
- MARCH 1, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Mohammed Reza-Chupari and Daryush Keshavarz , both...
Mohammed Reza-Chupari and Daryush Keshavarz , both Iranians, were hunged in public for murdering three police officers and drug trafficking in the central city of Abadeh
- FEBRUARY 25, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Three [unidentified] Afghan bandits were hung in public...
Three [unidentified] Afghan bandits were hung in public in the Khorasan Province on the border with Afghanistan
- FEBRUARY 20, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
An Afghan national, Shalif Alizehi, was executed after...
An Afghan national, Shalif Alizehi, was executed after being found guilty of robbery, rape and drug trafficking
- FEBRUARY 20, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi,...
The head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi, defended the use of the death penalty to the visiting UN Human Rights High Commissioner Mary Robinson saying most death sentences passed in Iran were drug-related
- FEBRUARY 18, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
57 people have been condemned to death in Iran since...
57 people have been condemned to death in Iran since the beginning of the year, according to the National Council for Resistance in Iran (NCRI)
- FEBRUARY 17, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Mohammad Ali Qahremani, 45, was publicly executed by...
Mohammad Ali Qahremani, 45, was publicly executed by hanging in Damavand, northwestern Tehran
- FEBRUARY 12, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in a statement...
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in a statement said the death sentence issued by the late Imam Khomeyni against the apostate Indian-born British writer Salman Rushdie was irrevocable
- FEBRUARY 6, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
The Iranian opposition said that the Tehran regime...
The Iranian opposition said that the Tehran regime has issued 34 death sentences since the beginning of the current year
- JANUARY 30, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Naser Zarafshan, lawyer for the families of the nationalists...
Naser Zarafshan, lawyer for the families of the nationalists Dariush and Parvaneh Foruhar and spokesman for the writer Mohammad Puyandeh, stated that "The relatives oppose the death sentence because they do not seek revenge
- JANUARY 27, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Judge Mohammad Reza Aqiqi of the Tehran military court...
Judge Mohammad Reza Aqiqi of the Tehran military court gave death penalty to Ali Roshani, Mahamoud Jafarzadeh and Ali Mohseni three former government agents for the murder of two elderly nationalists, Darioush and his wife Parvaneh Forouhar, and two write
- JANUARY 17, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Six of 11 people due to be hanged simultaneously in...
Six of 11 people due to be hanged simultaneously in Iran were executed, state radio reported
- JANUARY 17, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN
Six of 11 people due to be hanged simultaneously in Iran were executed, state radio reported.