Iran Sees 75% Increase in Executions During First Four Months of 2025 over 2024

According to Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), there have been at least 343 exe­cu­tions in Iran in the first four months of 2025 — a 75% increase over the same peri­od in 2024, when 195 exe­cu­tions were record­ed. Secrecy remains an issue with less than 4%, or only 13 of the 343 exe­cu­tions, report­ed by offi­cial sources. In April alone, there were at least 110 exe­cu­tions, the high­est month­ly total yet this year. Trends iden­ti­fied in recent years appear to be sus­tained into 2025, with exe­cu­tions for drug-relat­ed offens­es account­ing for about half of all exe­cu­tions; minori­ties being over­rep­re­sent­ed among those exe­cut­ed; and the con­tin­ued exe­cu­tion of political prisoners. 

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights lim­its use of the death penal­ty to the ​“most seri­ous offens­es,” mean­ing inten­tion­al killings, but Iran con­tin­ues to use the death penal­ty as pun­ish­ment for drug-relat­ed crimes. Executions for drug-relat­ed offens­es rep­re­sent near­ly half of the 343 exe­cu­tions this year and are more than 60% of exe­cu­tions car­ried out in April (69/​110). Included in this group are four Baluch men in Mashhad Central Prison who were hung on April 30, 2025. 35 peo­ple from the Baluch minor­i­ty were exe­cut­ed in April — rep­re­sent­ing almost 32% of the month­ly total even though, accord­ing to IHRNGO’s 2024 annu­al report, Baluch minori­ties make up only 2 – 6% of Iran’s total pop­u­la­tion. 17% of all drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions last year were of mem­bers of the Baluch community. 

The Kurdish minor­i­ty con­tin­ues to be sim­i­lar­ly dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affect­ed by the Iran’s use of the death penal­ty. IHRNGO’s 2024 annu­al report notes that Kurds account­ed for 52% of the 164 peo­ple exe­cut­ed from 2010 – 2024 for their affil­i­a­tion with banned polit­i­cal and armed groups, fol­lowed by Baluch (29%) and Arabs (16%). Six Kurds were among those exe­cut­ed in April 2025, includ­ing the April 21^st exe­cu­tion of 40-year-old polit­i­cal pris­on­er Hamid Hosseinnejad Heydranlou. Mr. Heydranlou’s exe­cu­tion was car­ried out in secret, with­out his fam­i­ly or lawyer being noti­fied in advance. According to report­ing by IHRNGO, Mr. Heydranlou’s case was still pend­ing at Branch 39 of the Supreme Court at the time of his exe­cu­tion. Mr. Heydranlou’s attor­ney asserts that his con­vic­tion for armed rebel­lion, based on his mem­ber­ship in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the killing of eight Iranian secu­ri­ty force mem­bers, was the result of a torture-tainted confession. 

On May 2, 2025, a world­wide coali­tion of 365 indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing United Nations experts, Nobel lau­re­ates, for­mer ambas­sadors, judges, human rights and legal experts, and orga­ni­za­tions released a joint state­ment urg­ing the United Nations to inter­vene in the immi­nent exe­cu­tions of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in Iran and con­demned the use of the death penal­ty against polit­i­cal pris­on­ers. The let­ter calls on the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to seek to halt the exe­cu­tions of Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani who were con­vict­ed in a five-minute tri­al and ​“denied legal coun­sel for near­ly two years,” as well as nine oth­er death-sen­tenced polit­i­cal pris­on­ers who are at immi­nent risk of exe­cu­tion. The let­ter high­lights Mr. Ehsani’s and Mr. Hassani’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the ongo­ing non-vio­lent ​“No Death Penalty Tuesday” hunger strike move­ment across Iranian pris­ons. The European Parliament has passed a res­o­lu­tion con­demn­ing their death sen­tences and the UN Special Rapporteur has writ­ten to Iranian author­i­ties regard­ing the vio­la­tion of their rights.