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
- 9,218
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 9,218 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
- 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
- DECEMBER 17, 1999IranDEATH PENALTY
On December 17, The General Assembly condemned, for...
On December 17, The General Assembly condemned, for the forty-fifth time, the Iranian Government with regard to human rights
- DECEMBER 1, 1999IranDEATH PENALTY
In December, a juvenile accused of murder escaped execution...
In December, a juvenile accused of murder escaped execution after having been pardoned by the father of the victim
- NOVEMBER 23, 1999IranDEATH PENALTY
On November 23, the Tehran morning newspapers, including...
On November 23, the Tehran morning newspapers, including Sobhe Emrooz, published a statement by the presiding judge of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran Gholamhossein Rahbarpoor, in which he announced that 3 of the students arrested during the demonstrati
- NOVEMBER 13, 1999IranDEATH PENALTY
On November 13, Khordad reported that Ahmad Batebi,...
On November 13, Khordad reported that Ahmad Batebi, a fine arts student at the Tehran University, had been condemned to death
- NOVEMBER 11, 1999IranDEATH PENALTY
On November 11, Iranian representative Mostafa Alaie,...
On November 11, Iranian representative Mostafa Alaie, speaking at the Third Committee of the General Assembly (human rights) under item 116a (death penalty), said that initiatives at the international level on human rights should be guided by the principl
- NOVEMBER 1, 1999IranDEATH PENALTY
At the beginning of November, 10 people were hanged...
At the beginning of November, 10 people were hanged in a single day in Arak, on charges of drug trafficking
- NOVEMBER 1, 1999IranDEATH PENALTY
In November, the entire Government was implicated in...
In November, the entire Government was implicated in the scandal that broke over political killings with the complicity of secret service officials
- OCTOBER 20, 1999IranDEATH PENALTY
On October 20, 4 students faced the death penalty on...
On October 20, 4 students faced the death penalty on charges of insulting the Twelfth Imam, one of the holiest Shiite figures in Islam, by publishing a satirical play in The Wave, an obscure university magazine with about 150 readers
- OCTOBER 16, 1999IranDEATH PENALTY
On October 16, a court ordered a 33-year old woman,...
On October 16, a court ordered a 33-year old woman, identified only as Masoumeh, to be stoned for adultery in accordance with the country's Islamic laws and gave her a 15-year jail term for complicity in her husband's murder
- OCTOBER 16, 1999IranDEATH PENALTY
On October 16, the execution of Majid Mehrparvar, a...
On October 16, the execution of Majid Mehrparvar, a gang leader accused of killing at least 3 truck drivers, was reported in Tehran
- OCTOBER 1, 1999IranDEATH PENALTY
In October, a youth of 17 and his accomplice, aged...
In October, a youth of 17 and his accomplice, aged 19, were publicly hanged in a square for having killed two people in an attempt to rob them
- SEPTEMBER 28, 1999IranDEATH PENALTY
On September 28, a crowd of about 2,000 people gathered...
On September 28, a crowd of about 2,000 people gathered outside the gates of Tehran University to condemn 2 students and the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, whose pluralistic policies have come under increasing fire from angry conservatives and
- SEPTEMBER 11, 1999IranDEATH PENALTY
On September 11, an Iranian Revolutionary Court sentenced...
On September 11, an Iranian Revolutionary Court sentenced 4 people to death and more could face the death penalty for pro-democracy protests in July
- SEPTEMBER 11, 1999IranDEATH PENALTY
On September 11, the weekly Jebheh said it would donate...
On September 11, the weekly Jebheh said it would donate 100 million rials ($57,000) for the "revolutionary execution" of Hossein Baqerzadeh, a London-based human rights activist, if any ranking cleric issued a fatwa, or religious edict, condemning him to