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 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Abdol Habibi executed in Kahnuj on October 1
518 executions in Iran in 2024
OCTOBER 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Monthly report: 73 executions in September
OCTOBER 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Meysam Mozaffari executed in Kashan on October 1
OCTOBER 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mostafa Kavandi and Ali Bahrami executed in Zanjan on October 1
OCTOBER 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN- Akhtar Ghorbanloo executed in Ahar on October 1
251 women have been executed in Iran since 2007
OCTOBER 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ghafar Hivechi executed in Gonbad Kavous on October 1
- SEPTEMBER 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Nesar Ahmad Rahmati executed in Mashhad on September 30
SEPTEMBER 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Public hanging of two unnamed men
SEPTEMBER 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - The two men publicly executed on September 30 identified as Reza Rashno Sadeghi and Haji Kaboudvand
SEPTEMBER 29, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mojtaba Zafarani executed in Birjand on September 29
SEPTEMBER 27, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Arvin Ghahremani is at imminent risk of execution
A young Jewish man
- SEPTEMBER 26, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Shahin Yusef Oghli executed in Tabriz on September 26
SEPTEMBER 26, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Emanullah Nahtani executed in Zahedan on September 26
SEPTEMBER 26, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Milad Ekhlaspour executed in Kerman on September 26
SEPTEMBER 26, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mahmoud Ataei executed in Isfahan on September 26
SEPTEMBER 26, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Amir Parsa Hassanzadeh executed in Isfahan on September 26
- SEPTEMBER 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 2 men executed in Shiraz on September 25
Rasoul Shenbandi and Akbar Saadi-Khani
SEPTEMBER 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Yaser Balandeh Executed in Jiroft Prison on September 25
SEPTEMBER 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 2 men executed in Karaj on September 25
The identities of the men were not disclosed
SEPTEMBER 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Kambakhsh Mahmoudi executed in Kermanshah on September 25
- SEPTEMBER 24, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ali Afrooz and Amirhossein Boroumand executed in Lahijan on September 24
- SEPTEMBER 23, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Malek-Hossein Torkashvand executed in Hamedan on September 23
- SEPTEMBER 23, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 4 men executed in Shiraz Central Prison (Adel Abad) on September 23
Hassan Nejati, Mohammadreza Nejati, Fardin Ahmadi, and Amin Shahabi
SEPTEMBER 23, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Saeed Alimardani and Mohammad Ghasaban executed in Qazvin on September 23
SEPTEMBER 23, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Fardin Ahmadi executed in Shiraz on September 23
- SEPTEMBER 23, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Khodamorad Zandi executed in Boroujerd on September 23
SEPTEMBER 23, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed in Rasht on September 11 and 23
Mostafa Amani, Nasrollah Pirasteh, Arman Atayi and Ramin Poursafar
- SEPTEMBER 20, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mohammad-Javad Vafaie Thani Sentenced to Death for the Third Time
After a Retrial
- SEPTEMBER 19, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Akbar Azizi and Hamed Jahedi executed in Karaj on September 19
SEPTEMBER 19, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hatem Ozdemir’s Death Sentence Upheld by the Supreme Court