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
- DECEMBER 5, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mahdi Hossein Zahi executed in Zahedan on December 5
DECEMBER 5, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Pakhshan Azizi has been denied visitation rights for the past 150 days.
Kurdish political prisoner on death row
DECEMBER 5, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Khaleqi Farghani executed in Mashhad on December 5
Execution carried out on his 22nd birthday
DECEMBER 4, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Narges Mohammadi was granted a medical leave
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights activist
DECEMBER 4, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Sina Shams-Elahi executed in Miandoab on December 4
- DECEMBER 3, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 45th week of “No to Executions Tuesdays”
- DECEMBER 3, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 3 men executed in Tabriz on December 3
Khalil Hassanzadeh, Abdullah Panah, Rasoul Ebrahimi
DECEMBER 3, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Sadeq Asadi executed in Yasuj on December 3
DECEMBER 3, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hassan Sa’adati executed in Rasht on December 3
- DECEMBER 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Khadanur Gorgij executed on December 2
DECEMBER 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mousa Ahmadian executed in Gorgan on December 2
DECEMBER 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 2 women and 2 men executed in Ilam on December 2
Farideh Jafarzadeh, Aliyeh Kavari-Zadeh, Hassan Hassan-Beigi, Abdolvahab Babakhaniyan
- DECEMBER 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - At least 126 prisoners executed during November 2024
Hengaw report
- DECEMBER 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ahmad Shah-Bakhsh (Khanshini) executed in Zahedan on December 1
DECEMBER 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Toomaj Salehi released
DECEMBER 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Farkhondeh Allah Moradi executed in Isfahan on December 1
DECEMBER 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Peyman Zarei executed in Shiraz on December 1
- NOVEMBER 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 6 Political Prisoners Sentenced to Execution for PMOI Membership
Abolhassan Montazer, Pouya Ghobadi, Vahid Bani-Amrian, Babak Alipour, Ali Akbar Daneshvarkar, and Mohammad Taghavi
NOVEMBER 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed in Karaj (Ghezel-Hesar) on November 30
Amir Moradi + 3 Unk.
NOVEMBER 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Nasrin Shakarami, mother of Nika Shakarami, sentenced to one year of imprisonment
NOVEMBER 29, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehrab Abdullahzadeh sentenced to death
NOVEMBER 29, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYSINGAPORE - Iranian-Singaporean Masoud Rahimi Mehrzad executed on November 29
Arrested at 20 for 31 grams of diamorphine
- NOVEMBER 28, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Siavash Yari and Mohammad Ali Darkeh executed in Ardakan on November 28
NOVEMBER 28, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Kamran Hemati executed in Arak on November 28
- NOVEMBER 28, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mohammad-Ali Taheri executed in Qazvin on November 28
818 executions in Iran in 2024
NOVEMBER 28, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men, 1 of them a minor, executed in Yazd on November 28
Ismail Barakzai, a minor, Davood Mohammadi Takht-Shah, Osman Dahmardeh
NOVEMBER 28, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Rahim Esmailpour executed in Yazd on November 28
- NOVEMBER 27, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 4 men executed in Karaj (Ghezel-Hesar) on November 27
Reza Shirzahi, a minor, Hamed Pakdel + 2 Unk
- NOVEMBER 27, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hadi Ghiasi executed in Nahavand on November 27
NOVEMBER 27, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Seyed Davood Rajabi executed in Qom on November 27