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
APRIL 15, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - At Least 45 people arrested for ‘contacts with foreign media’.
APRIL 15, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Woman Arrested for sending videos to foreign media
- APRIL 15, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 6 people arrested for sending videos top foreign media
Including 2 women
APRIL 15, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Report on the Arrest of Mohammad-Parsa Golchin
Olympiad Gold Medal–Winning Literature Student
- APRIL 14, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ehsan Hosseinipour Faces death sentence
A protester
APRIL 14, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Teachers’ Union Activist Mohammad-Ali Zahmatkesh Arrested
- APRIL 14, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 50 people arrested in Tehran
For posting images of the war on social media
APRIL 14, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ghazal Mawlan killed in a drone strike by IRGC
- APRIL 14, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 2 arrested for contact with foreign media
- APRIL 14, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 8 people arrested by IRGC
‘Contacts with foreign media’
- APRIL 14, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 7 Foreign Nationals Arrested by IRGC
For having entered Iran illegally during the war
- APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Zeinab Shafizadeh Arrested
APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Foreword to the 2025 Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran
By Nasrin Sotoudeh
- APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 10 People Arrested for Using Starlink
APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 2025 Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran
At least 1,639 people executed
APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Thousands of people arrested in Iran for “contacts with foreign media”
The West seems concerned only with its own “freedom of expression”, not that of the Iranian people
APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Siahani and Omran Siahani Killed by IRGC
Two Teenagers
- APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 60 Security Cases Opened, for Espionage Charges
APRIL 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 protesters sentenced to death
Mohammadreza Majidi-Asl, Bita Hemmati, Behrouz Zamaninejad, and Kourosh Zamaninejad
APRIL 12, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Peyvand and Borna Naeimi Under Torture to Confess to False Charges
Baha’i protesters
APRIL 12, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Eyewitness Accounts: Direct Fire and Mass Arrests in Khuzestan
Arab militias in support of government forces
APRIL 11, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hold the Perpetrators of Political Executions Accountable
Allah-Karam Azizi and Ghasem Sahraee
APRIL 10, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - The Bodies of Six Executed Political Prisoners Have Still Not Been Returned to Their Families
Akbar Daneshvar Kar, Seyed Mohammad Taghavi Sang-Dehi, Babak Alipour, Pouya Ghobadi Bistouni, Seyed Abolhassan Montazer, and Vahid Bani-Amerian
- APRIL 10, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 7 Citizens Arrested on Accusations of Contact with Foreign Media
- APRIL 9, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 1 man arrested for ‘contacts with foreign media’
APRIL 9, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 Baloch men shot dead by Iranian forces
Belal Hout, Abubakr Pirasteh, Sanaollah Pirasteh
- APRIL 9, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 23 people arrested for ‘contacts with foreign media’
- APRIL 9, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 34 people arrested for ‘contacts with foreign media’
- APRIL 9, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Confiscation of Assets Belonging to 25 Citizens, Including 19 Foreign Nationals
APRIL 9, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Azar Yahoo faces espionage-related charges over social media activity