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 6, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Bandar Abbas on August 6
Aminollah Narui (Narooie), Hamzeh Garavand, and Azad Abdollahi
AUGUST 4, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehdi Hosseini and Amir Tasbihi executed in Arak on August 4
AUGUST 4, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hoy Atef ... executed in Bushehr on August 4
AUGUST 3, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hossein Salehi and Morteza Seifzadeh executed in Tabriz on August 3
AUGUST 3, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Malek Ashtar and Ahmadreza Toni executed in Khorramabad on August 3
- AUGUST 3, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 3 men executed in Shiraz on August 3
Javad Amiri, Naghi Ghorbani, and Reza Rostami
- AUGUST 1, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hamed Parseh + Unk. executed in Khorramabad on August 1
- JULY 31, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Kazem Fatehi executed in Isfahan on July 31
- JULY 31, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Heshmat Moradian executed in Yasuj on July 31
JULY 31, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Fazl Ahmad Fatehnia executed in Zahedan on July 31
JULY 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Nabi Bakhsh Molazehi executed in Minab on July 30
JULY 29, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mahim Jangizehi executed in Minab on July 29
JULY 27, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men and 1 woman executed in Khorramabad on July 27
Ardeshir Maleki, Azim Amrayi (Emraei), … Farrokhnejad + Unk.
- JULY 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ghadir Jamshidi executed in Torbat-e Jam on July 25
JULY 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Kamran Sheikheh executed in Urmia on July 25
Kurdish-Sunni political prisoner
- JULY 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hasan Yousefi Azar executed in Urmia on July 25
JULY 25, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Moharramkhani and Hamed Naderi executed in Qazvin on July 25
- JULY 24, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ramezan … executed in Mashhad on July 24
JULY 24, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mutiullah Barakzai executed in Qaen on July 24
JULY 24, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ramezan Gholamian and Mousa Najar executed in Mashhad on July 24
JULY 23, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men and 3 women executed in Birjand on July 23
Amir Hamzeh Barahooie Mojarrad, Vahid Vahdani + 5 Unk
JULY 23, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Pakhshan Azizi, a political detainee, sentenced to death
JULY 23, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Gulab Shah Nurzehi executed in Bandar Abbas on July 23
- JULY 22, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hassan Falahi executed in Qom on July 22
- JULY 21, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 4 men executed in Karaj on July 21
Davood Brahui, Saeed Mohammadpour, Mehdi-Ali Akbari + unidentified Afghan
JULY 21, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Daniyal Kazeminejad executed in Kermanshah on July 21
On charges of murdering a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
- JULY 20, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 3 men and 1 woman executed in Shiraz on July 20
Mansour Tavakoli, Hamed Shekasteh, Mohsen Ostovari, and … Mahmoudinia
- JULY 20, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Saeed Sepahvand executed in Khorramabad on July 20
- JULY 20, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Saeed Sepahvand executed in Khorramabad on July 20
JULY 18, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Edris Jamshidzahi executed in Zahedan on July 18