Iran executed over 2,000 citizens over the past year, human rights group says

More than 2,000 people were executed in Iran over the past year — about one every 4.35 hours — according to a new report that found a 29% increase in executions.

The nonprofit Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said in a report released this month that its findings “point to a sharp intensification in executions, continued secrecy surrounding implementation of death sentences, and an increase in political and security-related executions.”

HRANA documented at least 2,003 executions across Iran between Oct. 10, 2025, and Oct. 8, 2026, based on 1,857 reports. During the same period, HRANA documented death sentences issued to 230 people. There were 1,553 executions recorded in the 2024-2025 reporting period.

Data from HRA’s Statistics Center shows that executions in Iran have increased each year beginning with the 2019-2020 reporting period, when there were 249 executions. 

"The current total was also more than 182% above the average of 710 executions across the ten reporting periods," the report notes.

"This trajectory places the current one-year increase within a longer pattern of escalation. Continued restrictions on access to official information, together with the very high share of unannounced executions, mean that the documented figures should be understood as the minimum that could be independently verified rather than necessarily the complete number of executions carried out,” the group said.

At least 16 of those sentenced to death were women, and six were sentenced to public execution. Iran’s Supreme Court upheld 74 of the 230 sentences.

Of those executed, 57.6% had been convicted of murder and 36.3% of drug-related offenses, according to HRANA. Together, the two categories accounted for more than 93% of recorded executions.

HRANA also documented 69 executions on political or security-related charges, including cases tied to protests. Of those, 35 were connected to the protests in January 2026, according to the report.

Iran executed at least 47 women in the past year, along with four people identified as having been under 18 at the time of their alleged offenses.

“Overall, 2.3% of those executed were women, 88.8% were men, and the gender of 8.9% remained unknown in the available data,” HRANA reported.

The data for the report relies on HRANA reporting, a nationwide volunteer network, verified open-source material, and judicial announcements.

"Because independent human rights groups cannot operate freely in Iran, access to prisons and courts is restricted, and many executions are deliberately concealed, a margin of error is unavoidable," the report reads.

"The figures in this report therefore reflect the capacity of civil society to document and independently verify executions rather than a claim to a flawless count of every execution carried out."

The group contends that "95% of executions were not announced by official sources."

"[This fact] underscores the importance of independent monitoring and verification in assessing the true scale of capital punishment in Iran," the report states. 

While HRANA’s report documents the scale of executions nationwide, Iranian political activist Rayan Amiri has described the danger he believes he faces for opposing the government.

Amiri, who fled to Turkey after leading the January protests, told NewsNation that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is hunting him and wants to kidnap him and return him to Iran for a “sham trial.” Amiri said he is seeking asylum in the United States, the United Kingdom or Belgium because he fears he could be killed if he does not receive help. Amiri said the regime uses the fear of execution to keep people from speaking out against its rule.

“The Islamist regime occupying Iran executes protesters and dissidents, including young men and girls, to instill fear in Iranian society and prevent the next uprising,” Amiri said. “Protesters from the January uprising have already been hanged after sham trials, most of them young, some barely adults, while some more sit on death row.”

“Public hangings, forced confessions, and accelerated regime propaganda and PSYOP against dissent are deliberate tools of regime’s terror. That is exactly what the regime wants to do: terrorize Iranian society to a level that they stop protesting,” he continued. “The terrorist and totalitarian regime wants every Iranian to believe resistance against the regime is futile and that the next street uprising will end at the gallows. They try to deter dissent by terror.”