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
JUNE 22, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Nategh Hosseini executed in Qazvin on June 22
In front of his 7-year-old son
- JUNE 20, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Law enforcement forces kill 18-year-old girl Raziyeh Rahmani
JUNE 20, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Javaid Rehman’s New Report on the Massacre of Political Prisoners in the ‘80s
JUNE 20, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - UN Secretary-General’s report on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
(A/HRC/56/22)
JUNE 19, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi Sentenced to Additional Year in Prison
JUNE 17, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Iranians in Stockholm Rally Against Release of War Criminal Hamid Nouri
- JUNE 16, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Khamenei pardons, reduces sentences of 2,654 inmates
But no death row prisoners
JUNE 15, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Sweden released Hamid Noury
Convicted of war crimes
JUNE 15, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Farhad Masoudian executed in Zanjan on June 15
- JUNE 12, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Homayoun Salami executed in Hamedan on June 12
- JUNE 9, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran - Mostafa Alipour executed in Yazd on June 9
JUNE 8, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Death sentence of Seyed Mohammad-Javad Vafaie overturned
Political prisoner
- JUNE 8, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Trial of jailed Iranian Nobel laureate Mohammadi opens in her absence
- JUNE 6, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hatem Özdemir appeals death sentence to higher Iranian court
Kurdish political prisoner belonging to the People Defense Forces
JUNE 6, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence for Sunni Cleric Mohammad Khezrnejad
- JUNE 5, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Nader Khosrawi and Nasrollah Ayoubi executed in Zanjan on June 5
JUNE 4, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Havel Prize Awarded to Toomaj Salehi
Dissident Iranian Rapper
JUNE 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Iman Rezaiepour executed in Neyshabur on June 2
- JUNE 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 3 men executed in Shiraz on June 1
Mahmoud Qaedi, Hassan Ne'matollahi, and Mohammad Saeed Zohrabi
MAY 26, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Samir Saeedi Rad executed in Qom on May 26
261 executions in Iran in 2024
MAY 26, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Alireza Arezoomandi and Samir Saeedirad executed in Qom on May 26
MAY 24, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Appeal of Jewish death row inmate Arvin Ghahremani dismissed
- MAY 20, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Dissident Expresses Joy Amid Mourning for President Raisi
Saeed Afkari, brother of the executed wrestler Navid Afkari
MAY 20, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Raisi's death does not mean the closure of the case on his crimes
Ebrahim Raisi, the president of the Islamic Republic and a member of the "Death Committee"
MAY 20, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - NCRI: Raisi’s Death Delivers Strategic Blow to Khamenei
Sparking Crises and Youth Rebellion in Iran
MAY 19, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Fardin Musazadeh and Mehdi Khadem executed in Ardebil on May 19
MAY 19, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hatem Ozdemir sentenced to death once again
Kurdish Political Prisoner
- MAY 19, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 4 men executed in Shiraz on May 19
Mojtaba Jouyandeh, Mostafa Aghaei, Nader Ghorbani + unidentified Afghan
- MAY 18, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Fatemeh Abdollahi, a woman, executed in Neyshabur on May 18
10th woman executed in Iran in 2024
MAY 18, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 1 woman, 5 men executed in Urmia on May 18
Parvin Mousavi, Mansour Naseri, Parviz Qasemi, Yousef Saeedi, Ramin Lavandipour, and 'Jabali'