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
- 9,221
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 9,221 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
AUGUST 26, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed in Tabriz on August 26
Shapour Hosseini, Irfan Abdolazizi, Mohebollah… e Moshref…
AUGUST 26, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Fahim … executed in Isfahan on August 24
AUGUST 24, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Abbas Rashidi executed in Qazvin on August 24
AUGUST 22, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Vahid Abbasi executed in Nahavand on August 22
AUGUST 22, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Khaled Jahangiri executed in Tabriz on August 22
AUGUST 21, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Daghestani executed in Urmia on August 21
AUGUST 20, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - The Continuation of the "No to Execution Tuesdays" Campaign in 18 Prisons Across the Country
Thirty Weeks of Resistance Against Executions
AUGUST 19, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Karami-Zadeh and Esmaiel Jawadi executed in Karaj on August 19
AUGUST 19, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 5 men executed in Yazd on August 19
Ansar Eftekhareddin, Mahmoud Salim, Abdolraouf Shehbakhsh, Abdolrahman Damani + Unk.
AUGUST 19, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 43 Human Rights Organisations Against Crackdown in Evin Prison
AUGUST 19, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehdi Piri and Mazaher Ayouzi (Eyvazi) executed in Zanjan on August 19
AUGUST 19, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unidentified man executed in Yazd at an unspecified date
AUGUST 18, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Abbas A’laei Aqblagh and Ali Azmoon executed in Tabriz on August 18
AUGUST 17, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Shiraz on August 17
Yousef Kazemzadeh, Ali Salimi and Heydar (Haider) Arab
AUGUST 15, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Peymanollah Veysi executed in Sanandaj on August 15
AUGUST 14, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed in Karaj on August 14
Behrouz Vafayi, Saeed Niazi (Ali Niazi), Naser Shafiei and unidentified Afghan man
AUGUST 14, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi cleared of charge after death sentence overturned
AUGUST 14, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Farajollah Khashi and Hamed Shehbakhsh executed in Kerman and Bam prisons on August 13 and 14
AUGUST 14, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Reza Zardkouhi and Mousa-alreza Ebrahimi executed in Sabzevar on August 14.
- AUGUST 14, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Elias Rezaei executed in Gorgan on August 14
AUGUST 13, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Unidentified Afghan national executed in Rafsanjan on August 13
- AUGUST 13, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Abdollah Lashtaghouni and Hamed Mozafari executed in Bandar Abbas on August 13
AUGUST 12, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 6 men executed in Khorramabad on August 10 and 12
Hossein Hatami, Naser Geravand, Milad Hadipour, Shirzad Reshadat, Ayat Biranvand + Unk
AUGUST 12, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed in Tabriz on August 12
Mohammad Ansari Gheshlagh, Ali Mehdian and two unidentified Afghan nationals
AUGUST 11, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Davoud Zahrabi executed in Isfahan on August 11
AUGUST 11, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehdi Dehdari executed in Shiraz on August 11
AUGUST 7, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 29 men executed in Karaj on August 7
Maybe also 2 women
AUGUST 7, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 2 unidentified women execute in Karaj (Central) on August 7
AUGUST 6, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Reza Rasaei executed in Kermanshah on August 6
Political prisoner arrested during the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement
- AUGUST 6, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Akbar Gohari executed in Sabzevar on August 6