Death Penalty News

Hengaw, Saturday, July 4, 2026—During the past calendar month, the death sentences of at least 109 prisoners, including 5 political prisoners, were carried out in various prisons across Iran. This figure represents an increase of at least 10 cases (equivalent to 10%) compared to the same period last year. In June 2025, at least 99 prisoners had been executed in Iranian prisons. The full identities of all 109 executed prisoners have been verified by Statistics and Documentation Center of the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.

For Iran’s Kurdish population, the death penalty is not only a criminal-justice issue. It is part of a larger architecture of state control, political intimidation, and national-security repression that has followed the Kurdish question since the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Kurdish activists, religious prisoners, protesters, and ordinary prisoners are pulled into a judicial system where the state often controls the accusation, the interrogation, the confession, the court narrative, and, finally, the rope.

Iranian authorities secretly executed Elias Zeinoddini, a Baloch prisoner from Lashar County, at Zahedan Central Prison in mid-May. He had previously been sentenced to death on accusations of “ moharebeh ” (waging war against God) and “participation in premeditated murder” in connection with the killing of a law enforcement officer. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Elias Zeinoddini, 44, from Lashar County in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, was executed in the early hours of Friday, May 16, 2026, at Zahedan Central Prison. He was denied a final visit with his family prior to the execution.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 31, 2025: As 2025 draws to a close, Iran is ending the year with more reported executions than in any other year since the late 1980s. While the final execution numbers for 2025 are still being verified, a process made arduous by Iran’s lack of judicial transparency, the available evidence already shows that more than 700 of the at least 1,500 people executed, were for drug-related offences. Those executed are overwhelmingly from the most marginalised sectors of Iranian society, including people living in poverty, ethnic minorities, foreign nationals and individuals with little or no access to effective legal defence.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 7, 2025: At least 217 people were executed in October 2025, including six women, 11 Afghan nationals, 11 Arabs, eight Baluch and 8 Kurdish minorities. This figure is double that of the 84 executions recorded in September 2024. This is the highest monthly execution figure recorded in at least 25 years.  In the first ten months of 2025, at least 1,271 people have been executed.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 4, 2025: State media reported the executions of six Arab political prisoners Ali Mojadam, Mohammadreza Moghadam, Adnan Ghabishavi, Moein Khanfari, Habib Deris and Salem Mousavi in Ahvaz, and Kurdish prisoner of conscience Saman Mohammadi Khiareh at undisclosed locations. According to reports obtained by IHRNGO, the six Arab political prisoners were hanged in Ahvaz Sepidar Prison and Saman Mohammadi Khiareh, in Ghezel Hesar Prison.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); June 2, 2025: At least 152 people including four women, five Afghan nationals, 19 Baluch, nine Kurdish and two Arab minorities were executed in Iran in May. One of the executions was carried out publicly. The number of executions in the first five months of 2025 is 96% more than the same period in 2024.  Reiterating that the Islamic Republic uses the death penalty as a tool of political repression, Iran Human Rights warns of an escalation in the executions in the coming months to suppress strikes and prevent further protests, and calls for an immediate response from the international community.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 3, 2025: At least 110 people were executed in April 2025. Three women, four Afghan nationals, 35 Baluch, 6 Kurdish and an Arab minority were amongst those executed.  The number of executions in the first four months of 2025 was 75% more than in the same period in 2024. At the gathering for two probable child offenders executed in Dezful, the police (NAJA) Special Unit shot dead at least one of the participants.  Noting the significant increase in the number of executions in the first four months of 2025 compared to the same period last year, Iran Human Rights once again draws the attention of the public, human rights organisations and the international community to the critical state of executions in Iran.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 1, 2025: Ali Kabi and Mohammad Nabi Zirkari, a Baluch man, were executed for murder and drug-related charges in Ahvaz Sepidar Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Ahvaz Sepidar prison on 28 April 2025. His identity has been established as 25-year-old Ali Kabi from Shushtar. He was arrested four years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. Another man was also hanged at the prison on 30 April. His identity has been established as Mohammad Nabi Zirkari, a 53-year-old Baluch father of seven from Mirjaveh. He was arrested eight years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 29, 2025: Abolfazl Kianpour, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Ahvaz Sepidar Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Ahvaz Sepidar Prison, Khuzestan province on 28 April 2025. His identity has been established as Abolfazl Kianpour from Masjed Suleiman. He was arrested three years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 16, 2025: A Kurdish and a Baluch man named Yadegar Rahimnejad and Abubakr Shehbakhsh were executed for drug-related offences in Kerman Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were hanged in Kerman Central Prison on 15 April 2025. Their identities have been established as Yadegar Rahimnejad, a Kurdish man from Baneh, and Abubakr Shehbakhsh, a 36-year-old Baluch man from Sarjangal in Zahedan.

The 17th Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran, by Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and ECPM (Together Against the Death Penalty), provides an assessment and analysis of death penalty trends in 2024 in the Islamic Republic of Iran. It sets out the number of executions in 2024, the trend compared to previous years, the legislative framework and procedures, charges, geographic distribution and a monthly breakdown of executions. Lists of women and juvenile offenders executed in 2024 are also included in tables in the categories section.

Many Were Child Brides Hanged for Murder of Abusive Husbands From Whom There Was No Protection  December 18, 2024 — Amidst a huge surge in executions in the Islamic Republic— 862 so far in 2024, the highest per capita execution rate globally—the Iranian authorities are now increasingly including women in those it sends to the gallows. Since the start of 2024, Iran has executed at least 29 women. More executions of women may have taken place that are unknown.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 4, 2024: At least 144 people including 4 women, 12 Afghan nationals, a Jewish-Iranian and a man with intellectual disabilities were executed in Iranian prisons. On average, more than four people were executed per day. In October 2024, the Islamic Republic carried out 166 executions, the highest number of monthly executions recorded by IHRNGO since 2007. The number of executions by Iran authorities has dramatically hiked under the shadow of conflict and the international community’s attention to Middle Eastern crises.

Iranian authorities have issued a flurry of new death sentences in recent weeks, sentencing political prisoners, ethnic minorities, and foreign nationals to capital punishment, Human Rights Watch said today.  Among the latest cases is a Kurdish political prisoner, Warisha Moradi, a member of the Free Women’s Society of Eastern Kurdistan. Iran’s revolutionary court in Tehran sentenced Moradi to death on the charge of “armed rebellion against the state” on November 10, 2024.

Iran executed seven individuals on Wednesday, including three Afghan nationals, at Ghezel Hesar prison in the city of Karaj, according to the HENGAW Organization for Human Rights.  The executions also included two Kurdish prisoners, the rights group reported. HENGAW identified one of the Afghan nationals as Ajmal Azizi, who had been sentenced to death for “premeditated murder.” 

The Islamic Republic of Iran has averaged one execution every seven hours over the past month, as a new president was forming his cabinet following elections that some expected to bring change. Between July 22 and August 21 alone, at least 106 individuals were executed in Iranian prisons, a reminder of the brutal measures the Islamic government has used for four decades despite international criticism, reported the US-based HRANA news agency on Thursday.

Kamran Sheikheh, a Kurdish religious prisoner held for over 14 years, was executed on Thursday morning.  Sheikheh was the last of seven defendants in a joint case to face execution.

The Islamic Republic alone carried out 74 percent of all documented executions worldwide in 2023, Amnesty International reported.  With 853 executions, a 48 percent increase from the previous year, Iran sits behind China as the world's leading executioner.

Iran is at the forefront of a surge in recorded executions in 2023, as revealed by the latest report from Amnesty International. “In Iran, the authorities intensified their use of the death penalty to instill fear in the population and tighten their grip on power, carrying out executions across the country,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.