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
- JANUARY 16, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Supreme court has upheld a death sentence by public...
Supreme court has upheld a death sentence by public stoning for a woman convicted of murdering her husband with the help of her lover
- JANUARY 10, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Hamid Heydari, a convicted murderer was hanged in public...
Hamid Heydari, a convicted murderer was hanged in public in Tehran
- JANUARY 10, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's Judiciary Chief Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi calling...
Iran's Judiciary Chief Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi calling for merciless and powerful action against drug-trafficking which has paralysed Iran said that currently 800 drug inmates have been sentenced to death
- JANUARY 7, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Hassan Faylom, 39, was hanged in public outside Tehran's...
Hassan Faylom, 39, was hanged in public outside Tehran's Qasr prison, for killing his wife, Fatemeh, 24, and his 19-month old daughter, Melika, stabbing them 41 times "in order to satisfy his lust and that of his lover Mojgan"
- JANUARY 1, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Stoning is a pre-Islamic punishment
Stoning is a pre-Islamic punishment
- JANUARY 1, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Plotting to overthrow the Islamic regime is subjected...
Plotting to overthrow the Islamic regime is subjected to death sentence under Iran's Islamic penal code
- JANUARY 1, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Since 1991 Iran has executed around 5,000 drug pushers
Since 1991 Iran has executed around 5,000 drug pushers
- JANUARY 1, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Secretary of the Islamic Human Rights Committee Hasan...
Secretary of the Islamic Human Rights Committee Hasan Zia'ifar dismissed complaints lodged against a report , published on 17 October 2000, by the special representative of the UN Commission on Human Rights Maurice Copithorne to the effect that executions
- JANUARY 1, 2001IranDEATH 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, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Citizens continued to be tried and sentenced to death...
Citizens continued to be tried and sentenced to death in the absence of sufficient procedural safeguards
- JANUARY 1, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
At least 250 cases of whippings were carried out in...
At least 250 cases of whippings were carried out in Iran in 2001, according to Amnesty International
- DECEMBER 7, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
In their Iran Report 2001, Human Rights Watch stated...
In their Iran Report 2001, Human Rights Watch stated "The (Iranian) government continued to make frequent use of the death penalty after trials which failed to comply with international standards
- DECEMBER 4, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
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- NOVEMBER 23, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Morad Ali Heydari was publicly executed after being...
Morad Ali Heydari was publicly executed after being convicted of killing two relatives with a firearm
- NOVEMBER 23, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
The daily newspaper Kayhan reported that Mohammad Taqi...
The daily newspaper Kayhan reported that Mohammad Taqi Amini was executed by hanging for his role in a multimillion dollar fraud, it did not specify the date of his execution
- NOVEMBER 18, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
A man was hanged in the south-eastern province of Kerman...
A man was hanged in the south-eastern province of Kerman after his death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court
- NOVEMBER 6, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Convicted criminal charged with rape, drug trafficking...
Convicted criminal charged with rape, drug trafficking and extortion was hanged in a Tehran prison after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence
- OCTOBER 15, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Mohammad Lak, convicted of kidnapping a three-year-old...
Mohammad Lak, convicted of kidnapping a three-year-old Afghan girl in 1999 and Abbas Qomi, convicted of abducting infant girls were publicly executed by hanging at Qom, south of the capital
- OCTOBER 11, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
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The U
- OCTOBER 1, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
In October 2000, U
In October 2000, U
- SEPTEMBER 29, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Seven members of a "terrorist network" in Iran "sponsored...
Seven members of a "terrorist network" in Iran "sponsored by the Iraqi Baath party" were sentenced to death, Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi said
- SEPTEMBER 16, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Amir Sadami, 21, and Morteza Abdollahi 22, were publicly...
Amir Sadami, 21, and Morteza Abdollahi 22, were publicly hanged in the north-western province of Qazvin
- SEPTEMBER 14, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
The Kar-o Kargar reported that authorities had executed...
The Kar-o Kargar reported that authorities had executed the ex-husband of a university professor in the southern Kerman province for shooting her to death last year
- SEPTEMBER 13, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Bahman Savari, 22, was publicly hanged in the south-western...
Bahman Savari, 22, was publicly hanged in the south-western city of Ahvaz for killing a policeman
- SEPTEMBER 13, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Masoud Eslami, a drug addict who had killed his 53-year-old...
Masoud Eslami, a drug addict who had killed his 53-year-old aunt last year and stole her gold, was executed by hanging in Tehran's Qasr prison
- SEPTEMBER 13, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Qolam Bandak was hanged in Qasr prison on charges of...
Qolam Bandak was hanged in Qasr prison on charges of having beaten to death a 22-year-old inmate
- SEPTEMBER 11, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Hassan Noruzian-Tabrizi was executed by hanging in...
Hassan Noruzian-Tabrizi was executed by hanging in the eastern city of Mashhad for murdering his pregnant wife in 1997
- SEPTEMBER 10, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Jalil Badali, Ezatollah Badali and Sedqali Shokati...
Jalil Badali, Ezatollah Badali and Sedqali Shokati were hanged after Iran's Supreme Court approved the death sentences imposed on them
- SEPTEMBER 3, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
A man was hanged in the south-eastern city of Kerman...
A man was hanged in the south-eastern city of Kerman for murdering his ex-wife after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence issued by a lower court
- SEPTEMBER 2, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
The daily Iranian newspaper Qods reported that Ali...
The daily Iranian newspaper Qods reported that Ali Taqizadeh, a 70-year-old man, was executed by hanging in the holy city of Mashhad in north-eastern Iran