KVIG Informative

Iran executed at least 2,003 people in the year ending Oct. 8, a 29 percent jump, according to a U.S.-based monitor. In July, Tehran announced eight of the 67 hangings that Hengaw documented.

Human Rights Activists in Iran, the monitoring group behind the HRANA news agency, documented at least 2,003 executions between Oct. 10, 2025, and Oct. 8, 2026, drawn from 1,857 separate reports. That is roughly 29 percent more than the previous reporting year. The group said its count carries a margin of error because independent monitors cannot operate freely in Iran and many executions are deliberately concealed.

Other monitors count the calendar year differently. Oslo-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights recorded at least 689 executions from Jan. 1 through Oct. 31, including 85 in October, up 25 percent from 68 in September. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran, based in Washington, had already counted at least 900 by Aug. 19.

Tehran announces few of them. Hengaw said only eight of the 67 executions it documented in July, or 12 percent, were announced by Iranian authorities or media tied to the judiciary. Amnesty International confirmed at least 2,159 executions in Iran in 2025, the highest figure it has recorded in that country since 1981.

The pace has not risen everywhere. Hengaw’s July total ran 30 percent below the 96 executions it recorded in July 2025. What changed is who is being hanged: a wave of executions on political charges began March 18, according to Iran Human Rights, and the group counted at least 29 people executed in connection with January’s protests by Aug. 27. Human Rights Watch researcher Bahar Saba said Iranian authorities executed at least 28 people on politically motivated charges between March 18 and her statement.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in late April that he was appalled by the surge in executions in Iran and criticized the arrest of about 4,000 people over the same period. A joint statement by 46 countries at the U.N. Human Rights Council in early October called for a halt to executions after more than 30 protesters were put to death. President Donald Trump has also urged Iran to stop. The hangings continued: Hengaw recorded 85 in October, six of them on political charges.

The condemned are not only the politically accused. The Boroumand Center documented the executions of 16 women and two people who were under 18 at the time of their alleged offenses, along with five public hangings, in its Aug. 19 report. Iran Human Rights and the Paris-based group Together Against the Death Penalty warned in April that hundreds of detained protesters face capital charges. The courts that will decide those cases announce few of their verdicts, so the public will learn the outcomes only if a monitor manages to count them.