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
FEBRUARY 20, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - IHR 2024 Annual Report
At least 975 people were executed in 2024
FEBRUARY 20, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Shahin Mahdavi and Soran Aminpour executed in Mahabad on February 20
134 executions in 2025
FEBRUARY 20, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mahmoud Barahouei executed in Karaj on February 20
FEBRUARY 20, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Shahin Mahdavikia giustiziato a Mahabad il 20 febbraio
FEBRUARY 20, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unidentified man executed in Bushehr on February 20
FEBRUARY 20, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Milad Naseri executed in Gonbad-e Kavus on February 20
FEBRUARY 20, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Babak Hajipour executed in Ahvaz on February 20
FEBRUARY 20, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hossein Goshoul and Behrouz Goshoul executed in Isfahan on February 20
FEBRUARY 20, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hossein Khalifeyi and Alimorad Taheri executed in Bushehr on February 20
- FEBRUARY 20, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mohsen Sagvand executed in Ahvaz on February 20
- FEBRUARY 19, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 4 men executed in Karaj (Ghezel Hesar) on February 19
Hossein Yavari, Sasan Mirhadi, Behrouz Mohammadi, Reza Anzali-Chi
- FEBRUARY 19, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Malek Parsa executed in Amol on February 19
FEBRUARY 19, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Rasoul Ashour executed in Isfahan on February 19
- FEBRUARY 19, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Update: There would be 7 executions in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on February 19
FEBRUARY 19, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Malek Parsa executed in Amol on February 19
- FEBRUARY 18, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 56th Week of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign
FEBRUARY 18, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 1 woman and 1 man executed in Shiraz on February 18
Woman only identified as Bagherinejad, and Mehdi Iranian
FEBRUARY 18, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Craig and Lindsay Foreman charged with espionage
British couple
FEBRUARY 18, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Death sentence of Mehrab Abdollahzadeh goes to Supreme Court
Kurdish political prisoner
FEBRUARY 18, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Yousef Kavarouyi executed in Kerman on February 18
FEBRUARY 17, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hossein Aliyari and Sadegh Nezakat executed in Qazvin and Neyshabur
On February 16 and 17
FEBRUARY 17, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 6 men executed in Isfahan on February 17
Ezzat Hosseini Doraki, Ali Es-haqi, Mohammad Shamseddin Arbab, Majid Baluch, Heydar Babaei and Burhan Wasim-Zehi
FEBRUARY 16, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Milad Farahmandijou executed in Behbahan on February 16
- FEBRUARY 16, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - British couple arrested in Iran identified
Craig and Lindsay Foreman
FEBRUARY 16, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Saeed Jokar executed in Shiraz on February 16
FEBRUARY 16, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hengaw’s Statistical Report: 909 Executions in Iran in 2024
- FEBRUARY 16, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hadi Farahani executed in Arak on February 16
FEBRUARY 16, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Bahram Almasi executed in Tabriz on February 16
FEBRUARY 16, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Pejman Bahramian hanged in Kermanshah in February
- FEBRUARY 15, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ali Kord executed in Ramhormoz on February 15