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
JULY 18, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Javad Teklo executed in Baft on July 18
JULY 17, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Taher Sadeghi executed in Rasht on July 17
JULY 9, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mohammad Ghorbani executed in Qazvin on July 9
JULY 7, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mojtaba Karami executed in Shiraz on July 7
- JULY 7, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Mostafa Hosseini and Hatam Shahidi Executed in Gorgan on July 7
JULY 6, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Ezati (Ezzati) Executed in Zanjan on July 6
JULY 5, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Urgent Action for Sharifeh Mohammadi
Kurdish labor activist sentenced to death
- JULY 4, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Sharifeh Mohammadi Sentenced to Death
- JULY 2, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN . 3 men executed in Tabriz on July 2
Reza Ahmadzadeh, Bahram Moharrami, and Mansour …
- JUNE 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - 4 men executed in Mashhad on June 30
Yaser Ghafoorian, Mohammad Hooshyar Alizadeh + 2 Unk
JUNE 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Habib Shojaei executed in Sari on June 30
- JUNE 30, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ali-Allah Bakhsh and Afzal-Allah Bakhsh executed in Shiraz on June 30
JUNE 28, 2024SwedenDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ahmad-Reza Jalali on Fourth Day of Hunger Strike
JUNE 26, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Naser Rahimi (Rakhshani) executed in Qaen on June 26
JUNE 26, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Idris Áli sentenced to death
Charged with "espionage for Israel."
JUNE 22, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Supreme Court Overturns Rapper Toomaj Salehi's Death Sentence
- JUNE 22, 2024IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Nategh Hosseini executed in Qazvin on June 22
In front of his 7-year-old son
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 20, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Law enforcement forces kill 18-year-old girl Raziyeh Rahmani
JUNE 19, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi Sentenced to Additional Year in Prison
JUNE 17, 2024SwedenDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Iranians in Stockholm Rally Against Release of War Criminal Hamid Nouri
JUNE 16, 2024IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Khamenei pardons, reduces sentences of 2,654 inmates
But no death row prisoners
JUNE 15, 2024SwedenDEATH 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 PENALTYIRAN - Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence for Sunni Cleric Mohammad Khezrnejad