Iran carried out 1,639 executions in 2025, highest figure since 1989

While the world is focussed on the Iran-US war, peace talks in Pakistan and tensions around the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian authorities reportedly executed at least 1,639 people in 2025, the highest number since 1989. According to two NGOs quoted by AFP, Iran is using capital punishment even more extensively after protests in January and the war against Israel and the US. Iran, engaged in a decades-long conflict with Israel, has repeatedly executed individuals it accuses of having links to Mossad and assisting its operations inside the country. This has significantly increased after Israel and US attacked Iran in June 2025.

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According to the report, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) in their annual reports said that the number of executions represented an increase of 68 percent. 975 people were put to death in 2024, including 48 women, but this number has significantly increased in 2025. If the Islamic Republic “survives the current crisis, there is a serious risk that executions will be used even more extensively as a tool of oppression and repression,” the report claimed. The figure amounts to an average of more than four executions per day. IHR requires two sources to confirm an execution.

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The report said the number of executions is by far the highest since IHR began tracking it in 2008, and is the most reported since 1989, in the earlier years of the Islamic Revolution. The NGOs also warned that “hundreds of detained protesters remain at risk of death sentences and execution” after being charged with capital crimes over January 2026 protests against the authorities — quashed by a crackdown that rights groups say left thousands dead and tens of thousands arrested.

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