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
DECEMBER 11, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Amin Jokar executed in Shiraz on December 11
DECEMBER 10, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - (Norway) Narges Mohammadi's children collect the Nobel in place of their mother, detained in Iran
DECEMBER 10, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Swede Johan Floderus faces charges in Iran of spying for Israel
- DECEMBER 9, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Abbas Ketabi executed in Qom on December 9
DECEMBER 9, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Abdul Basit Gorgich (Gorgij) and Abdul Aziz Shahlibur (Shahlibar) executed in Zahedan on December 9
DECEMBER 9, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 2 men executed in Zahedan on December 9
Ehsan Mahmoudzehi + Unk
DECEMBER 9, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Mehdi Nasiri and Abbas Ketabi executed in Qom on December 9
DECEMBER 8, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 3 men executed in Orumiyeh (Urmia) on December 8
Ali Shahin-Nejad, Solat Tosan, and Janali Nadimi Dargahi
DECEMBER 8, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Iran Human Rights Monitor: 743 executions in 2023
Hands off Cain counted 768 executions
DECEMBER 7, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Amir Alikhani executed in Rafsanjan on December 7
782 executions in Iran in 2023
- DECEMBER 6, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Zabihollah Arjomand executed in Dehdasht on December 6
DECEMBER 6, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Khaled Rouhi (Roohi) and Sirus Heydari (Sirous Heidari) executed in Sanandaj on December 6
- DECEMBER 6, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Kamal Elhami executed in Saqqez on December 6
DECEMBER 5, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed in Karaj on December 5
Sasan Maleki, Mehdi Moradi, Mojtaba Amiri, and Manouchehr Nourabad Barzgar
DECEMBER 4, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Fereydoun Nasiri-nejad executed in Jiroft on December 4
774 executions in Iran in 2023
DECEMBER 4, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Sadegh Ajdar executed in Yasuj on December 4
- DECEMBER 3, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Ali Majidi executed in Qazvin on December 3
DECEMBER 3, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed in Birjand on December 3
Mohammad Naeimi Far (Brahui), Ahmad Shahoo-Zahi, Maziar Narooie, and Hamid Sarani
DECEMBER 2, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - European Union: Current Pace Of Executions In Iran ‘Appalling’
NOVEMBER 30, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Naser Alizehi and Naser Ozbakzehi executed in Zahedan on November 30
769 executions since the beginning of the year
NOVEMBER 30, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Protester Kamran Rezaei executed in Shiraz on November 30
NOVEMBER 30, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 118 Kolbars killed or wounded in November
mountain carriers
NOVEMBER 29, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ayoub Karimi executed in Karaj on November 29
A Kurdish religious prisoner
NOVEMBER 29, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Moradkhan Geravand and Morad Biranvand executed in Khorramabad on November 29
NOVEMBER 29, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Massoud Basak executed in Kashan on November 29
NOVEMBER 28, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Two more men executed on November 28 in Ilam
Unk so far
NOVEMBER 28, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Eghbal Fathollahi and Mohsen Amraie executed in Karaj on November 28
NOVEMBER 28, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Hani Shahbazi (Al-Boushehbazi) executed in Ahvaz on November 28.
Shahbazi was arrested during the November 2019 protests
- NOVEMBER 28, 2023IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Hamid Bakhshayesh executed in Karaj on 28 November
NOVEMBER 28, 2023IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Ali Agha Mohammadi and Naser Maghsoudi executed in Ilam on 28 November