Death Penalty News

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 12 February 2026: Isfahan province was the scene of one of the bloodiest crackdowns on anti-government protests in recent years during January 2026. Testimonies from eyewitnesses and medical sources, as well as accounts received by IHRNGO, indicate that government forces used live ammunition extensively against protesters and other civilians on 8 and 9 January 2026. The accounts describe large numbers of those killed and injured in at least 16 cities and one village across the province, raids on hospitals, the rapid transfer of bodies, and pressure placed on families of those killed. 

TEHRAN, Iran (DPN) — Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has approved pardons or sentence reductions for more than 2,100 convicts, the judiciary announced Tuesday, in a move coinciding with the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. However, authorities explicitly excluded anyone involved in the deadly nationwide protests that erupted in late December 2025 and continued into January 2026, highlighting the regime's ongoing hardline stance against dissent.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 15 January 2026: Nineteen days into the anti-government nationwide protests in Iran, IHRNGO continues to receive reports of the extent of the bloody crackdown on protests through individuals who have recently left Iran, phone calls and communications through satellite internet devices. These accounts indicate the wide scale of repression and the systematic killing of protesters across Iran. IHRNGO has obtained new evidence of state forces using heavy weaponry including DShK and other mounted machine guns, in attacks on protesters and carried out mass killings between 8 and 11 January.

Hengaw warns of imminent execution of Erfan Soltani just days after arrest  Erfan Soltani, a resident of Fardis, Karaj, who was arrested during recent protests in the city, is facing the imminent execution of a death sentence following a rapid and opaque judicial process. His family learned only days after his arrest that the execution is scheduled to take place this Wednesday.  According to reports received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Erfan Soltani, a 26-year-old detainee arrested in connection with the ongoing protests, is at immediate risk of execution. His family has been denied access to any information regarding the charges, case file, or judicial proceedings. 

A Nazi executioner in an infamous World War II photograph has been unmasked for the first time after 80 years, using Artificial Intelligence .  The man holding a pistol to the head of a kneeling Jewish victim in the harrowing photo known as 'The Last Jew of Vinnytsia' has been identified by a historian as Schutzstaffel (SS) officer Jakobus Onnen , who was 33 at the time of the killing. The heart-wrenching photograph, long regarded as one of the most haunting images of World War II, shows a German soldier in spectacles aiming his weapon at a man kneeling beside a mass grave while several other soldiers look on.

Hamas terrorists cold-bloodedly execute 90-year-old Israeli woman As Israeli forces continue to clear Gaza border towns of Hamas terrorists, harrowing scenes keep emerging, with particularly gruesome images being revealed in Kibbutz Kissufim. "Dozens of terrorists entered Kissufim and broke into homes of innocent civilians," says a local going by the name Shmulik Harel.  "While they were outside, they shouted 'IDF, IDF,' possibly in an attempt to lull us into a false sense of security and make us leave our homes. However, most of the residents sensed that something was amiss."

Former president and frontrunner for GOP nomination also warns ‘this country will die’ if Joe Biden wins election Donald Trump called for shooting store robbers on Friday in a bleak speech to California Republicans –and warned “this country will die!” if Joe Biden remained president. During the address to GOP members, Trump also railed that wealthy Beverly Hills residents smell because of water denials, and repeated election fraud lies, according to the Associated Press. “We will immediately stop all of the pillaging and theft. Very simply: If you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store,” Trump said, spurring applause. “Shot!”

Iran secured a senior role at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday, despite hanging two men on charges of blasphemy earlier this week. Iran will serve as chair of the Human Rights Council Social Forum for the next year, which is set to be focused on how technology can be used to promote human rights.  The announcement came just days after Iran executed two men for participating in a social media discourse titled "Critique of Superstition and Religion." Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare were executed at Arak Prison in central Iran on Monday after being arrested in May 2020 for the crime of blasphemy. Iran has ramped up its executions in recent months in response to the waves of unrest it has experienced since the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last year. Amini was beaten in police custody after being arrested for improperly wearing her hijab. She succumbed to her injuries days later in a hospital.

Raids Target Former Police, Intelligence Officers Taliban forces in Afghanistan have summarily executed or forcibly disappeared more than 100 former police and intelligence officers in just four provinces since taking over the country on August 15, 2021, despite a proclaimed amnesty, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 25-page report, “‘No Forgiveness for People Like You,’ Executions and Enforced Disappearances in Afghanistan under the Taliban,” documents the killing or disappearance of 47 former members of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) – military personnel, police, intelligence service members, and militia – who had surrendered to or were apprehended by Taliban forces between August 15 and October 31.  Human Rights Watch gathered credible information on more than 100 killings from Ghazni, Helmand, Kandahar, and Kunduz provinces alone. “The Taliban leadership’s promised amnesty has not stopped local commanders from summarily executing or disappearin...

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of LGBT Afghan citizens, who dared to take modest steps toward living openly when their country was under the occupation and influence of a more tolerant “western culture,” are now literally hiding in closets, ditches, and abandoned houses to avoid summary execution by Afghanistan’s new governing force, the Taliban. That’s what Nemat Sadat, an Afghan-born gay activist and American citizen, said this week about the plight of LGBT people in his homeland. His concerns were largely echoed in news reports from a wide range of independent media and organizations. The State Department issued a statement September 2, saying that, while the U.S. has withdrawn all U.S. personnel from Kabul, it would use “every diplomatic, economic, political, and assistance tool at our disposal to uphold the basic rights of all Afghans.” But the potential for gaining U.S. help appears bleak because, in order to apply for asylum, an Afghan must first get out of Afghanistan. On a speci...

Disturbing footage has emerged of an Afghan police chief being executed by the Taliban — after he surrendered to the militants, according to reports. Former BBC journalist Nasrin Nawa posted the gruesome video which appears to show Haji Mullah Achakzai, head of the police in Badghis province near Herat. The man is seen in the clip blindfolded and kneeling before several bullets ring out and his lifeless body flops onto the ground. “This is their public amnesty,” Nawa wrote, referring to the Taliban’s declaration this week amid the insurgents’ attempts to present a moderate face after sweeping to power. The police chief was reportedly arrested by the Taliban during their blitz across the country on the way to the capital of Kabul, where they toppled the government on Sunday. The group shared the distressing clip through a Taliban-related network, Afghan security adviser Nasser Waziri told Newsweek, adding that the footage was verified by other police officers and government officials. T...

(Nairobi) – Ethiopian government forces summarily executed a 17-year-old boy in Ethiopia’s Oromia region in broad daylight, Human Rights Watch said today. The public execution of Amanuel Wondimu Kebede underscores the lack of accountability for security force abuses in the country. On May 11, 2021, government forces apprehended and beat Amanuel in Dembi Dollo, a town in the Kellem Wellega zone of western Oromia. A video posted on social media by the town’s administration shows security forces taunting a bloodied Amanuel with a handgun tied around his neck. He was executed in public that day. In the ensuing weeks, the authorities intimidated and arbitrarily arrested other Dembi Dollo residents, including Amanuel’s family members. “The Ethiopian authorities’ summary execution of a teenage boy shows astounding disregard for human life,” said Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The callous way that security forces and local officials filmed and then publicized t...

GENEVA (14 September 2020) - UN human rights experts today strongly condemned the summary execution of champion wrestler Navid Afkari in Iran, raising alarm at the latest execution in a series of death penalty sentences handed down in the context of protests in 2018 and 2019. "It is deeply disturbing that the authorities appear to have used the death penalty against an athlete as a warning to its population in a climate of increasing social unrest,” the experts said, while sending their condolences to Navid Afkari’s family. “Such flagrant disregard for the right to life through summary executions is not only a matter of domestic concern. We call on the international community to react strongly to these actions by the Islamic Republic of Iran. RELATED |  Wrestling Champion Navid Afkari Executed Despite International Outcries “The execution of Afkari, the second execution in connection to protests in the last two months, together with the alarming frequency of death penalty sente...

A stark map has revealed the 318 places in North Korea where people have been publicly executed - most commonly for theft or damage to property. Using testimonies from more than 600 defectors the human rights researchers found executions commonly took place on river banks, fields, market places, hills and mountains, sports and school grounds. Of the 715 mentions of charges resulting in an execution it was most commonly related to theft or damage to property, including food and livestock (238 times) followed by violent crime (115 times) and political crimes (73 times). Witnesses also told the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) - the organisation which undertook the research - that they were often forced to watch the executions. The size of the assembled crowds at each public execution varying in size from hundreds to thousands - with 4 in 5 of those interviewed saying they had witnessed a public execution in their lifetime - the youngest witness to a public exe...

While Franco has lain in splendour 37 miles (60km) outside Madrid, until recently, an estimated 140,000 of his opponents lay in unmarked graves around the country, buried where they were summarily executed during and after the civil war. The last of these executions was carried out in 1975. Spain has taken another step towards dealing with the legacy of the civil war after the government approved the exhumation of the remains of Francisco Franco, which have lain in the Valley of the Fallen mausoleum near Madrid since his death in 1975. The council of ministers voted in favour of the move, which was opposed by the rightwing People’s and Citizens parties. However, the decree only needed a simple majority to pass. The Socialist party of the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, the leftwing Podemos and the Catalan and Basque nationalist parties all voted in favour. The decree means that after a dispute lasting many years, the removal of the former dictator’s remains will go ahead,...

GENEVA — The United Nations said Friday that it was appalled by a mass execution of prisoners in Iraq and called for an immediate halt to executions, citing flaws in the country’s criminal justice system. Iraq’s Ministry of Justice said 38 prisoners were executed on terrorism-related charges in the southern city of Nasiriya on Thursday, but it gave no details of the prisoners’ identities or the offenses for which they were sentenced to death. “Given the flaws of the Iraqi justice system, it appears extremely doubtful that strict due process and fair trial guarantees were followed in these 38 cases,” Elizabeth Throssell, a spokeswoman for the United Nations human rights office in Geneva, told reporters. “This raises the prospect of irreversible miscarriages of justice and violations of the right to life.” Iraqi courts are dealing with thousands of prisoners, including foreigners and hundreds of children, some as young as 13, who were detained in the past two years becaus...