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
- 8,611
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 8,611 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
OCTOBER 10, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Iran executed at least 138 Kurdish prisoners over past Islamic year
Between 10 October 2023 and 9 October 2024
OCTOBER 10, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Maroufkhani executed in Qazvin on October 10
OCTOBER 10, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Maroufkhani and Hamed Jafari executed in Qazvin on October 10
- OCTOBER 9, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 2 unidentified men executed in Qazvin on October 9
- OCTOBER 9, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 6 more executions in Karaj (Ghezel Hesar) on October 9
OCTOBER 9, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Karaj on October 9
Majid Afrouz, Mohammad Mashmool, and Ebrahim Sedigh
OCTOBER 9, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Karaj (Ghezel Hesar) on October 9
Ahmad Narouei, Mohammad Es’haqzahi, and Kamran Saghaei
OCTOBER 9, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehdi Brahooie executed in Zahedan on October 9
Likely a minor at time of offense
OCTOBER 9, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Iraj Moradian executed in Gorgan on October 9
OCTOBER 9, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hadi Fallah executed in Tabriz on October 9
OCTOBER 9, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Iman Bakhshayesh was executed in Rasht on October 9
OCTOBER 8, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - The regime has executed more than 250 people since Massoud Pezeshkian became president
The “No to Executions on Tuesdays” campaign entered its 37th week
OCTOBER 8, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Death Sentence Overturned for Political Prisoner Mahmood Mehrabi
- OCTOBER 7, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Unidentified man executed in Torbat-e Heydariyyeh on October 3
OCTOBER 6, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Habibullah Mohammadzehi executed in Bam on October 6
- OCTOBER 6, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Younes Piroozi executed in Ardabil on October 6
- OCTOBER 5, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ashkan Yari executed in Hamedan on October 5
OCTOBER 3, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hamed Hariri and Reza Soleimanzadeh executed in Gorgan on October 3.
OCTOBER 3, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Tayeb Mansouri executed in Isfahan on October 3
- OCTOBER 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 2 more men executed in Karaj on October 2
Ali Mamashlou and Morteza Abdolhosseinpour
- OCTOBER 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Vahid Nowruzi (Norouzi) executed in Mashhad on October 2
- OCTOBER 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hamzeh Shahbazi and Fazlollah Pournasiri executed in Karaj on October 2
- OCTOBER 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 6 men 1 woman executed in Karaj on October 2
OCTOBER 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Zahra Feizi (Feyzi) executed in Tabriz on October 2
21 Women Executed in 2024
OCTOBER 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ayat Abdolfathi executed in Ahvaz on October 2
OCTOBER 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Shiraz on October 2
Mohammad Chaman Pira, Abbas Khodayari and Seyed Naser Hosseini
OCTOBER 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Identified woman hanged Oct. 2: Leila Ghaemi
- OCTOBER 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Dastgir Sasuli and Rashid Sepahi executed on October 1
In Saravan and Semnan prisons
- OCTOBER 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 3 men executed in Ilam on October 1
Nima Moradi, Nosratollah Mnati, and Mehdi Khorsan
- OCTOBER 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 2 men executed in Kerman on October 1
Not identified