NextFin News - Iran executed at least 1,639 people in 2025, marking the highest annual death toll recorded in the Islamic Republic since 1989. The figure represents a 68% surge from the 975 executions documented in 2024, according to a joint report released Monday by Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM). The data reveals an average of four hangings per day, a pace that human rights monitors describe as a systematic tool of state intimidation during a period of heightened domestic unrest and regional conflict.
The escalation in capital punishment coincides with a period of extreme political volatility. Since the outbreak of direct conflict involving the U.S. and Israel on February 28, 2026, the Iranian judiciary has accelerated its use of the gallows. Seven individuals have been executed in direct connection with the January 2026 protests, which saw thousands of demonstrators killed and tens of thousands detained. Beyond protest-related cases, the report notes that 795 of last year’s executions were for drug-related offenses—a 58% increase—while 747 were for murder, up 79% from the previous year.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of IHR, has long maintained a critical stance toward the Iranian judiciary, frequently arguing that the death penalty is used primarily to instill fear rather than to deter crime. His organization’s findings suggest that ethnic minorities and marginalized groups remain disproportionately targeted. Amiry-Moghaddam noted that during recent high-level negotiations over the weekend, the rights of the Iranian people were conspicuously absent from the agenda. He argues that a moratorium on the death penalty should be a non-negotiable prerequisite for any diplomatic re-engagement with Tehran.
While IHR and ECPM provide the most widely cited figures, their data is often higher than official Iranian state media reports, which typically only announce a fraction of total executions. This discrepancy is attributed to "secret" executions carried out in provincial prisons without public notice. Some regional analysts suggest that the surge in drug-related executions may be a response to a genuine domestic narcotics crisis exacerbated by border instability, rather than purely a political maneuver. However, the timing of the broader "execution spree" suggests a clear correlation with the state's need to project domestic strength during wartime.
The legal framework supporting these numbers remains centered on the Revolutionary Courts. Just over half of last year’s executions followed sentences handed down by these specialized tribunals, which IHR characterizes as lacking due process and relying on "grossly unfair" trials. Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, executive director of ECPM, has called for the abolition of the death penalty to be placed at the "heart" of any future talks between U.S. President Trump’s administration and Tehran. Currently, at least 27 people remain on death row in connection with the protests at the start of this year, with hundreds more facing charges that carry the capital sentence.
The failure of weekend peace talks has already sent ripples through global markets, with oil prices jumping back above $100 per barrel as a U.S. military blockade of Iranian ports looms. As the geopolitical standoff intensifies, the internal human rights situation appears to be deteriorating in tandem. With the Islamic Republic facing what many observers call its most significant existential crisis in decades, the judiciary shows no signs of slowing the pace of executions. The gallows have become a grim barometer for the regime's internal security concerns, functioning as a final, lethal line of defense against domestic dissent.
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