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
JANUARY 19, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Court sentences pop star Tataloo to death for blasphemy
JANUARY 19, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Abbas Mohammadi executed in Arak on January 19
- JANUARY 18, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Two Iranian supreme court judges shot dead
Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghisseh
JANUARY 18, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mass Executions Behind The Elimination of Iranian Judges
Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghise
JANUARY 17, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Saman Yasin arrives in Germany
Iranian-Kurdish rapper once on death row
JANUARY 16, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Third man executed in Khorrambad on January 16
Mohammad Amiri-Bahravand
JANUARY 16, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Rashid Zeinabi and Saman Davoudian executed in Khorramabad on January 16
JANUARY 16, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Saiwan Yaqoubi executed in Sanandaj on January 16
- JANUARY 15, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 3 men executed in Shiraz on January 15
Farrokh Nasiri, Mansour Qolizadeh, and Payam Cheraghi
- JANUARY 14, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 51st week of the “No to Executions on Tuesdays” campaign
Hunger strikes in 34 female and male prisons
JANUARY 14, 2025FranceDEATH PENALTYIRAN - French Citizen Olivier Grondeau Imprisoned in Iran
3rd Frenche citized deteined in Iran on vague charges
JANUARY 13, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - IHRS Year-End report. Iran Executed More than 1000 in 2024.
JANUARY 12, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Jafar Fallah executed in Semnan on January 12
- JANUARY 12, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Pouya Asgari executed in Arak on January 12
- JANUARY 8, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Sixth execution reported in Karaj (Ghezel Hesar) on Jan. 8
An unidentified Afghan
JANUARY 5, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Peyman Bahmanyari execeted in Ganaveh on January 5
DECEMBER 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ahmad Barahouei and Kurus Naroui executed in Isfahan on December 30
- DECEMBER 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 4 men executed in Isfahan on December 30
Ahmad Barahooie (Brahui) Chenal, Kourosh Narooie, Ayat Pourmansouri, and Babak Shoghi.
DECEMBER 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Protester (Mojahed) Korkor sentenced to death
For the second time
- DECEMBER 29, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Jalal Stanekzai executed in Aligudarz on December 29
DECEMBER 27, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Cecilia Sala, a 29-year-old Italian journalist, arrested in Tehran
DECEMBER 26, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed in Gonabad on December 26
Javad Ghaffari, Ahmad Ghafran, Abdollah Naroui and Hossein Salarzehi
DECEMBER 26, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Saman Fakhri and Asad Amini executed in Jiroft on December 26
948 executions in Iran in 2024
- DECEMBER 26, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Jahan Tigh third man executed in Jiroft on Dec. 26
951 executions in Iran in 2024
- DECEMBER 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mahmoud Keshavarzi executed in Shiraz on December 25
DECEMBER 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Karaj (Ghezel-Hesar) on December 25
Masoud Jalilian, Hassan Mansouri, Hamed Pakdaman
- DECEMBER 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Habib Pournaghi executed in Tabriz on December 25
- DECEMBER 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hamed Ranjbar and Kateb Seyednian executed in Shiraz on December 25
DECEMBER 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Shiraz on December 25
Iman Yazdani, Davood Barati, and Mohammad-Ali Soleimankhani
- DECEMBER 24, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Davoud Ghalijayi executed in Birjand on December 24