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 15, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Abbas Bameri executed in Birjand on February 15
FEBRUARY 15, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Raei executed on February 15 in Birjand
- FEBRUARY 14, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Milad Attar executed in Dezful on February 12
- FEBRUARY 13, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Two British citizens, a man and a woman, arrested on vague charges.
Yet another episode of ‘hostage taking’ by the Iranian regime.
FEBRUARY 13, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Sharifeh Mohammadi sentenced to death again
FEBRUARY 13, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Younes Kheyrallahpour executed in Aligudarz on February 13
FEBRUARY 12, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehdi Shabakhsh Pirsorani and Tayeb Javadi executed in Isfahan on February 12
FEBRUARY 12, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Javad Kakavand executed in Malayer on February 12
- FEBRUARY 11, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 55th Week of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign
Hunger strike in in 35 Prisons Across Iran
FEBRUARY 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Shahram Manafzadeh and Farhad Abdoli executed in Tabriz on February 9
FEBRUARY 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Pejman Soltani sentenced to death
Kurdish political prisoner, arrested during the “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” movement
- FEBRUARY 8, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - On February 8, a woman who partially undressed on a street in Tehran was arrested
The arrest of three other individuals in connection with the incident
FEBRUARY 8, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Rezaei executed in Zanjan on February 8
FEBRUARY 6, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Kurdish political prisoner Pakhshan Azizi is at imminent risk of execution
After her appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court
FEBRUARY 6, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - A woman, Mahtab Ghazizadeh, executed in Sari on February 6
265 women have been executed in Iran since 2007
- FEBRUARY 5, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Golmohammad Gorgij and Abdulhamid Kohkan executed in Gorgan on January 5
FEBRUARY 5, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehdi Ahmadi and Saeed Gholami executed in Kermanshah on February 5
- FEBRUARY 5, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Salman Hamdard executed in Borujerd on February 5
- FEBRUARY 4, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Monthly report on women’s rights
20 women activists arrested, three sentenced, 18 women killed
FEBRUARY 3, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Manouchehr Fallah has been sentenced to death
A Gilak political prisoner held in Lakan Prison in Rasht
- FEBRUARY 3, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hafez Bani Asadi executed in Mashhad on February 3
FEBRUARY 3, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hasani transferred to political prisoners’ ward
Following extensive domestic and international protests
- FEBRUARY 3, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hamidreza Shahmoradi executed in Khorramabad on February 3
- FEBRUARY 2, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - A letter from a brave female prisoner
FEBRUARY 2, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Afshin Amiri executed in Kermanshah on February 2
FEBRUARY 1, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 87 executions in January
FEBRUARY 1, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Maryam Kaviani executed in Khorramabad on February 1
a Lor woman from Khorramabad
FEBRUARY 1, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ehsan Jamshidi executed in Sari on February 1
JANUARY 30, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Zaboli executed in Yasuj on January 30
JANUARY 30, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - IHR Calls for the Revocation of 6 Political Prisoners’ Death Penalty
Babak Alipour, Vahid Baniamerian, Pouya Ghobadi, Abolhassan Montazer and Ali Akbar Daneshvarkar and Mohammad Taghavi