Report: Iran carried out 1,639 executions in 2025

A new report reveals a dramatic rise in executions across Iran, with crimes such as apostasy and homosexuality punishable by death.

By World Israel News Staff

The Iranian regime executed at least 1,639 people in 2025, marking the highest number of state-sanctioned killings since 1989, the end of the Iran-Iraq War, according to a new report released Monday.

The report, compiled by Iran Human Rights and Together Against the Death Penalty, details the Islamic regime’s widespread and escalating use of capital punishment.

Convictions for a broad range of crimes, including apostasy, homosexuality, insulting the Prophet Mohammed, extramarital sex, and “corruption on Earth” — a sweeping charge frequently used to criminalize dissent and punish those who challenge the regime’s interpretation of Sharia law or oppose the government — are offenses punishable by the death penalty in Iran.

Iran Human Rights and Together Against the Death Penalty stressed that the figure of 1,639 executions likely understates the true scale of killings carried out by Iranian authorities.

The total does not include “suspicious deaths in custody, people on death row who died in prison before execution or those killed under torture,” the report noted, suggesting the actual number of victims could be significantly higher.

The data also highlights a sharp increase from the previous year. In 2024, at least 975 people were executed — meaning executions rose by roughly 68% in 2025.

Transparency regarding the death penalty remains limited. Fewer than 7% of executions were publicly announced by official sources, often leaving families unaware of their relatives’ fate.

At least 11 executions were carried out in public, underscoring the regime’s use of capital punishment as a tool of intimidation.

Notably, the report’s findings precede a new wave of nationwide protests that erupted across Iran in January 2026. Casualty estimates from the government’s crackdown on demonstrators vary widely, particularly regarding those killed in the streets, those who died in custody, and individuals later sentenced to death for their involvement in the unrest.

Some analysts estimate that as many as 30,000 protesters may have been killed during the crackdown, though such figures remain difficult to independently verify.