Iran executed at least 1,639 people in 2025, a 68% increase from the previous year and the highest figure since 1989, according to the annual joint report published today by the Norwegian NGO Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and the French organization Ensemble contre la Peine de Mort (ECPM).
The figure far exceeds the 975 executions recorded in 2024 and the 834 in 2023, a sustained escalation that both organizations directly link to the protests triggered in 2022 by the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody after being detained for not wearing her hijab correctly.
Only 113 of the 1,639 executions were announced by official sources, less than 7% of the total, compared to 9.5% in 2024 and 15% in 2023, highlighting an increasing opacity of the regime.
Almost half of the deaths were related to drug-related crimes, a 58% increase compared to the previous year, while another 37 occurred due to sexual assault charges.
At least 57 executions occurred on charges related to security —armed rebellion, enmity against God, and corruption on Earth— including two protesters, 18 political prisoners, 13 accused of espionage, and one convicted of financial corruption.
At least 48 women were executed, a 55% increase compared to 2024 and the highest number in twenty years.
The report states that 11 executions took place in public spaces and that at least 84 Afghan citizens lost their lives, compared to 80 in 2024 and 16 in 2022. Among the non-Iranian casualties, there are also three Iraqis and another person identified only as a foreigner.
Of the executions in 2025, 852 were based on sentences issued by the Revolutionary Courts, a figure that totals more than 5,972 cases since 2010.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of IHRNGO, warned that authorities carried out an average of four to five executions daily to instill fear and prevent demonstrations.
The report also warns of 553 additional executions reported to IHRNGO in 2025 that could not be verified by two independent sources, a figure more than ten times higher than the annual average of the previous four years. The organization did not rule out that some reports may be part of a disinformation campaign by the regime aimed at discrediting human rights organizations.
Since 2008, the total number of executions in Iran has exceeded 11,196, averaging 622 per year.
In light of these figures, IHRNGO and ECPM issued a call to the international community, including United Nations and governments with diplomatic relations with Iran, to place the abolition of the death penalty at the forefront of their agenda. "The death penalty in Iran is used as a political tool of oppression and repression, and ethnic minorities and other marginalized groups are overrepresented among those executed," stated Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, executive director of ECPM.
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