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
- APRIL 27, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Azam Faryad-Shiran and Abbas Azadmard were sentenced...
Azam Faryad-Shiran and Abbas Azadmard were sentenced to death and 91 lashes for killing Faryad-Shiran's husband
- APRIL 19, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Reza Zohrevand, 21, was publicly hanged in Khorramabad...
Reza Zohrevand, 21, was publicly hanged in Khorramabad for murder
- APRIL 18, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
The U
The U
- APRIL 16, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence passed...
The Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence passed on Abolfazl Allahgholi, 28
- APRIL 10, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Saeed Heidari, 21, Qassem Hosseini,19, Mohammadreza...
Saeed Heidari, 21, Qassem Hosseini,19, Mohammadreza Ebrahimi, Habibollah Eidmorad and Jalil Pourjalai were executed by hanging in Qasr prison, Tehran, on unrelated charges of murder
- APRIL 10, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Mashallah Shamsol-Vaezin, a pioneer of independent...
Mashallah Shamsol-Vaezin, a pioneer of independent media and editor of a succession of banned titles, was imprisoned for thirty months on the grounds that an article he had published criticizing the death penalty defamed Islam
- MARCH 23, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Hassan Kahi and Mohammad Noushin were sentenced to...
Hassan Kahi and Mohammad Noushin were sentenced to death for murdering Dr
- MARCH 16, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
The Islamic penal code envisages stiff sentences for...
The Islamic penal code envisages stiff sentences for a range of social, sexual and political offences, including frequent lashing and even executions
- MARCH 9, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
A woman was sentenced to death for murdering her husband
A woman was sentenced to death for murdering her husband
- MARCH 9, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Hussein Abedini, a member of the foreign affairs committee,...
Hussein Abedini, a member of the foreign affairs committee, said Iranian clerics had carried out some 120,000 executions since 1978, secretly or publicly, and that 700 people had been executed since the beginning of 1999
- MARCH 4, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Court confirmed the death sentences that...
The Supreme Court confirmed the death sentences that had been passed on Balal Moazami, Abbas A
- MARCH 2, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Hossein Arjmandi received two death sentences for murdering...
Hossein Arjmandi received two death sentences for murdering a mother and her son
- MARCH 1, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian student facing execution for his part in...
An Iranian student facing execution for his part in the violent unrest of last July claimed he had been tortured and ill-treated in prison since his arrest
- FEBRUARY 28, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Mohammad Reza Eslampour, 29, was shot in the city of...
Mohammad Reza Eslampour, 29, was shot in the city of Larijan following charges of murder
- FEBRUARY 24, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Three drug traffickers were executed by hanging after...
Three drug traffickers were executed by hanging after their death sentences were confirmed by Iran's Supreme Court
- FEBRUARY 21, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Akbar Mohammadi's conviction for the riots in the summer...
Akbar Mohammadi's conviction for the riots in the summer of 1999, at Tehran University, was overruled by the Supreme Court following strong International pressure in Mohammadi's favour
- FEBRUARY 14, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Mohammad Ali Gh was shot for the murder of Mostafa...
Mohammad Ali Gh was shot for the murder of Mostafa Sharilu, 84, in the city of Khoy
- FEBRUARY 11, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
U.S. President Bill Clinton urged Iran not to execute...
U.S. President Bill Clinton urged Iran not to execute three members of the Bahai faith, adding it believed the men were tried solely because of their religious beliefs
- JANUARY 30, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Afghano Ghafour Jami was shot after spending a year...
Afghano Ghafour Jami was shot after spending a year of imprisonment at Lavasanat on a murder conviction
- JANUARY 20, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Alireza Taraghikhah, 26, Mohammad Beigi, Nourkhoda...
Alireza Taraghikhah, 26, Mohammad Beigi, Nourkhoda Mahmoodi and Ali Salehi were executed by hanging in Tehran
- JANUARY 20, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
The Iranian daily newspaper Entekhab said a woman,...
The Iranian daily newspaper Entekhab said a woman, Masoumeh Fathi, had been executed by hanging in the north-western city of Tabriz, on January 19th, after the Supreme Court upheld her death sentence for murdering a female prison warder while trying to es
- JANUARY 20, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
The daily newspaper Hamshahri said a woman identified...
The daily newspaper Hamshahri said a woman identified only as Alieh and a male companion, Farhang Moradi, had been executed by hanging in Kermanshah, western Iran, for the murder of Alieh's husband
- JANUARY 14, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Four men convicted of murder were executed by hanging...
Four men convicted of murder were executed by hanging at a prison in Iran
- JANUARY 14, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Jasem Ebrahimi, 17, was executed by hanging in Gonaveh,...
Jasem Ebrahimi, 17, was executed by hanging in Gonaveh, in southern Iran, after his death sentence was confirmed by the supreme court
- JANUARY 11, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Spokeswoman for the Worker-Communist Party of Iran...
Spokeswoman for the Worker-Communist Party of Iran Azam Kamguian criticised the Iranian Foreign Minister Dr Kamal Kharrazi's visit to England stating: "Kharrazi is representative of a regime whose record includes over 100,000 executions, torture, imprison
- JANUARY 10, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Akbar Mohammadi and Ahmad Batebi, accused of involvement...
Akbar Mohammadi and Ahmad Batebi, accused of involvement in the 1999 student demonstrations, had their sentences approved by the Supreme Court
- JANUARY 2, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Morteza Amini Moqaddam, a teenager who had been convicted...
Morteza Amini Moqaddam, a teenager who had been convicted of murder, escaped execution after the father of his victim pardoned him
- JANUARY 1, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Following elections held in February 2000 the reformists...
Following elections held in February 2000 the reformists backing moderate President Mohammad Khatami won 79 percent of the vote compared with 21 percent for the conservatives
- JANUARY 1, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's penal code is based on Islamic sharia law and...
Iran's penal code is based on Islamic sharia law and prescribes death by stoning for the crime of "sexual perversion"
- JANUARY 1, 2000IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran's Jewish community has shrunk to some 35,000 members...
Iran's Jewish community has shrunk to some 35,000 members from more than 80,000 before the 1979 Islamic revolution as many emigrated to the United States and Israel