Iran Executions: Who Carries Them Out, and What Monitors Count

Peter’s World has published the Iran Executions Tracker and Memorial, a searchable record of 86 named people executed in Iran in protest-related, political and alleged-espionage cases between 2020 and October 2026. Each entry gives the date, the charge as reported, what monitors and Iranian officials have said, and the sources. This article explains what the page covers, who does what in the process, and what the main monitors count.

Why we built it

Most executions in Iran are not announced, and most of the people are not named in news coverage. Rights groups count them; this page tries to keep individual names, dates and circumstances in one place, with every claim attributed. It is a selection, not a census. Families and others can ask for corrections or removal at contact@petersworld.org.

Who carries out an execution

Under Iran’s system, a court issues the sentence and the judiciary and prison authorities carry it out. The judiciary’s Mizan agency usually announces it, often saying the Supreme Court upheld the verdict. The IRGC is not a court. Named sources describe its roles differently from case to case, so each entry has a separate field that records only what a source reports.

• Mohsen Shekari (executed Dec. 8, 2022): Mizan said he wounded a Basij member, part of the IRGC’s structure, with a machete during a protest. Amnesty International called the trial a “grossly unfair sham trial.” No IRGC arrest role is reported in the sources we consulted.
• Jamshid Sharmahd (executed Oct. 28, 2024): AP reports the Iranian judiciary announced the execution and that he was abducted by “Iranian security forces.” The judiciary linked him to a 2008 Shiraz mosque bombing and the Tondar group; Germany said he was held for years without a fair trial.
• Isfahan “Shohada Square” case (sentenced, not executed): Human Rights Watch says defendants were accused of involvement in the death of an IRGC member on Jan. 8, and that, per Dadban, a lawyer lodged a complaint against the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization alleging torture. Those are allegations reported by HRW and Dadban, not findings.

What monitors count

The groups use different methods, and each figure is a minimum. Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) says only a small share of executions in 2025 were announced by officials; the rest it confirmed itself.

Year	Iran Human Rights	Amnesty International
2021	at least 333	at least 314
2022	at least 582	at least 576
2023	at least 834	at least 853
2024	at least 975	at least 972
2025	at least 1,639	at least 2,159

Sources: IHRNGO 2025 annual report; Amnesty, May 2026; HRANA’s 2025 total is 2,063, based on 1,743 verified reports, per HRANA. IHRNGO counted 57 executions on security-related charges in 2025, up from 31 in 2024, including 13 for alleged espionage for Israel.

For 2026, HRW and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said Iranian authorities executed at least 59 men on politically motivated national-security charges between March 18 and the end of August, including at least 29 arrested over the December 2025-January 2026 protests. HRW said several were 18 or 19 and that 16 of the 29 faced no allegation of killing.

What Iranian officials say

Officials present the sentences as lawful penalties after due process. Mizan routinely says an execution followed completion of legal procedures and Supreme Court approval. Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei told judges in December 2022 to “avoid showing unnecessary sympathy to main elements of these riots and issue tough sentences for them,” BBC reported. In March 2026 he ordered fast-tracked trials in cases of alleged collaboration with the United States and Israel, with maximum penalties applied, according to IHRNGO. Iranian officials have also described protesters as rioters and accused foreign powers of fuelling unrest.

Fair-trial concerns, and how we handle them

Amnesty, HRW, IHRNGO and HRANA have alleged forced confessions, denial of lawyers and trials lasting days or weeks in a number of these cases. The page labels such claims as alleged by the named group, gives the official account beside them, and does not state anyone’s guilt or innocence as fact. Charges are reported as charges.

Analysis: the judiciary chief’s fast-track directive and HRW’s finding that some cases moved from arrest to execution in about five weeks point the same way on speed. What the two sides dispute is whether the trials met international standards.

What the page does not do

• It names 86 people, a small fraction of those executed. Entries need two independent sources.
• It uses portrait photos only where a Wikimedia Commons licence allows. One entry (Jamshid Sharmahd) has one; the rest show a neutral silhouette and a link to the monitor’s own page. Photo credits are in a downloadable table.
• It lists people sentenced to death but not executed in a separate section, labelled as such, using named monitors’ reports.
• It does not solicit donations. It links to HRANA, IHRNGO, Amnesty and Hengaw for readers who want to follow the work directly.

Open the tracker to browse the memorial wall or the table, filter by year, category, province and sex, and download the data as CSV or JSON.

Related coverage

• Protest Tracker Launches: US, UK and Iran, With Sources
• Trump Threatens Iran as Nuclear Demands Return to Talks
• Iran Executions Tracker and Memorial

Sources

• Human Rights Watch and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, Iran: Ongoing Unlawful Execution Campaign Against Protesters, Sept. 10, 2026.
• Iran Human Rights, Annual Report on the Death Penalty 2025.
• Amnesty International, Executions surge to highest recorded figure in 44 years, May 2026.
• HRANA, Annual statistical report of human rights conditions in Iran 2025.
• BBC News, Mohsen Shekari: Iran carries out first execution over protests, Dec. 8, 2022.