ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran executed more than 2,000 people over the past year, including nine in public, marking a sharp increase from the previous year, a human rights group reported Friday, as United Nations experts called for an immediate halt to executions.
Several human rights groups published annual reports on executions and death sentences in Iran on Friday, ahead of World Day Against the Death Penalty on Saturday, documenting cases involving protesters, juvenile offenders and political activists.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that it had documented at least 2,003 executions across Iran since October 10, 2025, an increase of around 30 percent from the 1,537 recorded in its previous annual report.
The group reported that “nine were carried out in public.” It also said four people whose identities and case histories were verified “were under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged offense.”
Approximately 95 percent of documented executions were carried out without being announced by official sources or domestic media, according to the report.
On Friday, a group of United Nations experts urged Iran to immediately halt all executions, warning that the country remains one of the few nations that still carries out capital punishment and is by far the “most prolific” per capita.
A significant number of death sentences were linked to nationwide protests that erupted in early January over deteriorating economic conditions and the sharp depreciation of the Iranian currency. The demonstrations later escalated into calls for fundamental political change.
At least 106 protestors have been sentenced to death, with 35 of those sentences carried out, according to an annual report published by the Oslo-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.
Among those executed were two young men, Amir Hossein Safari and Abolfazl Sepahi, whom Iranian authorities executed in a public square in Isfahan province.
Human rights organizations have long accused Iranian authorities of using executions to intimidate the public, suppress dissent and deter protests, a practice they say has persisted since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
