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
- 8,610
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 8,610 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 12, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed in Zahedan on April 12
Majid Lajei, Ramin (Rahmatollah) Alizahi, Davood Bajizahi (Shahouzehi), and Bashir Ahmad Rigi
APRIL 12, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Rabi Shah-Morad and Wasim Ahmad executed in Qazvin on April 12
APRIL 11, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Death sentence of Shahriar Bayat overturned
64-year-old political prisoner
APRIL 10, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ehsan Bamari and Yasin Bamari executed in Iranshahr on April 10
APRIL 10, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Moein Ashrafi executed in Shahroud on April 10
- APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Sajad Barahouei executed in Mashhad on April 9
- APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Soud Mirzaei and Vahid Ashouri executed in Shiraz on April 9, 2025
- APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Younes Kord e Esmail Dahmardeh giustiziati a Gonabad il 9 aprile
- APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Kambiz Fathi executed in Kermanshah on April 9
- APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 3 men executed in Karaj (Ghezel Hesar) on April 9
- APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN Gholamreza Pardakhteh executed in Shahrud on April 9
- APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Unidentified man executed in Karaj (Ghezel Hesar) on April 9th
- APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Habib Aghaei executed in Qom on April 9
- APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Behrouz Shirmohammadli executed in Gonbad-e Kavus on April 9
APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Iman Salimi executed in Borazjan on April 9
- APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Alireza Seifi executed in Shiraz on April 9
APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 7 Men Hanged in Karaj (Ghezel Hesar) on April 9
Sajad Akbari, Bahram Hodavand Khani, Salar Amir Jalali, Abolfazl Karimi, Mehdi Salan and two unidentified men. Hengaw (and HoC) already reported the execution of 4 of them
APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ebrahim Memari Hanged in Ahvaz on April 9
- APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 2 more men executed in Karaj (Ghezel Hesar) an April 9
Meysam Veysi and Shir-Mohammad Nazarollah
APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Seifollah Nasiri executed Tabriz on 9 April
APRIL 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Shamseddin Fazli Hanged in Tabriz on April 9
- APRIL 8, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Amir Ahmad Sanai (Mazarehei) and Mohammadreza Damideh executed in Mashhad on April 8
- APRIL 8, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 2 Women and 3 Men executed in Mashhad on April 8
2 Unk women and Mohammadreza Damideh, Amirahmad Sanayi, Sajad Barahouyi
APRIL 8, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Five Political Prisoners Executed in Mashhad on April 8
Farhad Shakeri, Abdolhakim Azim Gorgij, Abdolrahman Gorgij, Taj Mohammad Khormali, and Malek-Ali Fadaie-Nasab
APRIL 8, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 unidentified women were executed on 8 April in Mashhad prison
IHR previously wrote of 2
- APRIL 7, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Shahram Goudarzi and Taher Shaabani executed in Aligudarz on April 7
- APRIL 7, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hamid Abdouli executed in Dezful on April 7
APRIL 7, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Seyed Taha Hosseini executed in Bukan on April 7
- APRIL 6, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Samir Ghasemi executed in Qom on April 6
APRIL 6, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Kurdish political prisoner Pakhshan Azizi is at imminent risk of execution
After her second appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court