‘The Top Executioner’: Iran Executed at Least 975 People in 2024

Latest Developments

A ‘Surge’ in Executions: Tehran executed at least 975 people in 2024, making Iran the year’s “top executioner in the world per capita,” two human rights groups said in a joint report released on February 20. The publication by the Norway-based Iran Human Rights and the France-based Together Against the Death Penalty noted that the 2024 figure marked “a 17% increase compared to 834 in 2023.” According to the report, “This surge represents the highest number of recorded executions in Iran in more than two decades, with a particularly sharp rise observed after the presidential election and the appointment of Masoud Pezeshkian in the latter half of the year amidst escalating tensions between Iran and Israel.”
Victims Include Women and Dissidents: The report said the regime executed at least 31 people allegedly guilty of security-related charges, including nine Kurdish political prisoners. Tehran also executed at least 31 women, “the highest number over at least 17 years,” according to the report. At least two protesters and one child offender received capital punishment as well. At least five of the dead “suffered from psychosocial and intellectual disabilities,” the report said. Tehran hanged four people in public places.
Silence at Key UN Office: Drug-related offenses accounted for at least 503 of the executions, yet the UN Office on Drugs and Crime “remained conspicuously silent, and continued its law enforcement cooperation with the Islamic Republic,” the report said. In a foreword to the report, Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Iran from July 2018 to July 2024, wrote that drug-related offenses “can never serve as the basis” for the death penalty pursuant to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a signatory.

FDD Expert Response

“Although correlation is not causation, there is much to glean from Tehran’s surge of executions in 2024. Broadly, the numbers make clear that six months of a new government under President Masoud Pezeshkian have not even yielded a fig leaf of reform or moderation. They also show that what is old with the Islamic Republic can be new again — namely, after suffering defeat abroad, the regime seeks to feign strength through heavy-handed tactics against an increasingly dissatisfied population at home. Seen in this light, Tehran’s reliance on the death penalty is a domestic tool of terror, not an element of a legitimate judicial apparatus.” — Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran Program Senior Director and Senior Fellow

“The Islamic Republic wields the death penalty not merely to implement its conception of justice but also to instill fear among the Iranian people. The surge of executions in 2024 suggests that Tehran seeks to deter Iranians from challenging the regime as the country continues to suffer from nationwide protests, international isolation, a weak economy, and the degradation of its proxies Hamas and Hezbollah at Israel’s hands. As part of its renewed maximum pressure campaign against Tehran, the Trump administration must demand the cessation of human rights abuses and advance maximum support for the Iranian people.” — Tzvi Kahn, Research Fellow and Senior Editor

“The regime’s escalating domestic repression mirrors its growing vulnerability outside its borders. Amid the mounting threat of attacks on its nuclear infrastructure, Iran’s greatest fear is not foreign adversaries but its own people — whom it views as the ultimate existential threat.” — Janatan Sayeh, Research Analyst