Last year, Iran was a world leader in handing out and carrying out death sentences – to the extent that it accounted for close to 80% of executions recorded across the world.

This emerges from Amnesty International’s report, Death Sentences and Executions 2025.

According to its information, Iran executed at least 2 159 people in 2025. This was the highest number of executions undertaken in a single year in Iran since 1981; it was also more than double the 972 people known to have been executed in 2024. Since the operation of Iran’s judicial and penal systems are opaque, this is likely to be an undercount.

The report noted that Iran was “weaponising” the death sentence as a means of intimidating its population against the background of political instability. Iran had used sentences against people who challenged (“or were perceived as having challenged”) the Iranian regime.

“The authorities of Iran intensified their use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression and control, fuelling an unprecedented rise in executions. A marked increase was recorded in the aftermath of the 12-day war with Israel in June 2025, with 654 executions recorded from January to June, and 1 505 executions recorded from July to December,” the report stated.

The death sentence has been applied against people who participated in protests after “grossly unfair” trials before politicised courts. Torture and other coercion methods have been used to extract confessions.

Senior figures in the Iranian regime explicitly sought to execute opponents deemed to be linked to Israel.

“Under the guise of national security, the Iranian authorities intensified their use of the death penalty in the aftermath of hostilities between Israel and Iran, following Israeli military strikes against Iran in June 2025. Senior officials, including the head of the judiciary, Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, called for expedited trials and executions for ‘supporting’ or ‘collaborating’ with hostile states, including Israel. Iran’s parliament also passed the ‘Law on Intensifying the Punishment for Espionage and Collaboration with the Zionist Regime and Hostile States Against National Security and Interests’ expanding the use of the death penalty, including for vaguely worded national security charges, such as ‘cooperation with hostile governments’ and ‘espionage’, punished by the mandatory death penalty.”

A least 11 people have been executed for allegedly spying for Israel, following highly questionable trials. Members of Iran’s ethnic minorities, such as Kurds and Afghans, featured prominently among those executed.

In addition, Iran used the death sentence freely on alleged drug charges. Around 46% of executions (998) were on drug-related charges.

At least one person executed was below the age of 18. “Scores” of people awaiting execution were believed to have been under that age when the alleged offences were committed.

Globally, Amnesty International recorded 2 707 executions in 2025 (due to data-gathering difficulties, there are no records for executions carried out in China, which is believed to execute even more people annually than Iran, as well as Iraq, Palestine, North Korea, and Vietnam). The number of executions recorded in 2024 was 1 518.

Saudi Arabia executed 356 people, Yemen 51, the United States 47, and Kuwait and Singapore 17 each. A number of other countries – including Japan, South Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates – carried out smaller numbers of executions.