Iran executed at least 1,639 people in 2025 and now risks hanging more in the wake of the war against the US and Israel, two NGOs said Monday, urging the West to put capital punishment “at the heart” of any negotiations with Tehran.
According to a joint annual study by Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), the number of executions increased by 68% from 975 in 2024.
According to the report, if the Islamic Republic survives the current crisis, there is a risk that executions will be used as a tool of oppression and repression.
The IHR requires two sources to confirm an execution, which is not reported in Iranian official media. The figure represents an “absolute minimum” for the number of hangings in 2025.
According to the report, the number of executions was the highest since IHR began tracking it in 2008 and the most reported since 1989, during the early years of the Islamic revolution.
ECPM’s executive director, Raphael Chenuil-Hazan, emphasized the importance of abolishing the death penalty in any talks between Iran and the West to end the conflict, which is currently halted by a ceasefire.
“Be strong; put the death penalty in all the deals,” he told reporters at a news conference in Paris, adding that the “reality is the same” even after more than five weeks of war that saw the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam noted that there was “no mention of the Iranian people’s rights in any of those negotiations” following the weekend’s US-Iran talks in Islamabad that failed to reach an agreement.
A moratorium on the death sentence and the release of all political prisoners must be “demand number one” in negotiations, he stated.
The report also warned that “hundreds of detained protesters remain at risk of death sentences and execution” after being prosecuted with capital crimes for the January 2026 rallies against the authorities, which were repressed by a crackdown that rights groups believe killed thousands and arrested tens of thousands.
Even during the conflict, Iran executed seven people in connection with the January protests, six more men convicted of membership in the outlawed opposition group People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), and one dual Iranian-Swedish citizen accused of espionage for Israel.
Amiry-Moghaddam stated that death sentences had been imposed for at least 26 other persons caught during the January protests, but “several hundred more” are pending charges that might result in their execution.
“The message they send by executing people every day is to say ‘we have the power to kill’,” he added.
In 2025, at least 48 women were executed, the highest number in over 20 years and a 55% increase from 31 in 2024, according to NGOs.
Of these, 21 were executed for murdering their husbands or fiancés. Public hangings increased to 11 in 2025, more than tripling the previous year.
Almost half of those executed were convicted of drug-related offenses, according to the report.
According to rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Iran has the highest number of executions per capita of any country in the world, with the exception of China, for which no accurate data is available.
Amiry-Moghaddam stated that more than 500 other prospective executions in 2025 were not included in the report because they could not be clearly sourced. Compiling the numbers has also been hampered by the authorities’ internet blockade during the January protests and fighting, he said.
Chenuil-Hazan noted that this could imply Iran has “perhaps” surpassed China as the world’s top executioner.
