1000 Executions in 2025; Record Number in 30+ Years
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); September 23, 2025: At least 1000 people have been executed in Iran in less than nine months of 2025. From 1 January 2025 until today, IHRNGO has verified and recorded 1000 executions. In the last week alone, it has recorded 64 executions, an average of more than nine hangings per day! It is important to note that the figures are an absolute minimum. Due to the lack of transparency and restrictions on reporting, the number is believed to be higher.
Recalling previous warnings about the high and widespread use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression, Iran Human Rights once again calls on the international community to take appropriate action to prevent the continued killing of the population behind bars. Given the scale, systematic nature and political function of the executions to intimidate and create societal fear, the organisation calls on the UN Human Rights Council’s Fact-Finding Mission to investigate them as crimes against humanity.
IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “In recent months the Islamic Republic has begun a mass killing campaign in Iran’s prisons, the dimensions of which, in the absence of serious international reactions, are expanding every day. The widespread, arbitrary executions of prisoners without due process and fair trial rights amount to crimes against humanity and must be placed at the top of the international community’s agenda regarding the Islamic Republic. Any dialogue between countries committed to the foundations of human rights and the Islamic Republic that does not include the execution crisis in Iran is unacceptable.”
The majority of executions being carried out are for drug-related and other non-lethal offences that do not meet the “most serious crimes” threshold under international human rights law.
