UN experts appalled by unprecedented execution spree in Iran with over 1000 killed in nine months
29 September 2025
GENEVA – Over 1000 people have been killed in less than nine months of 2025, UN experts said today, warning that the figures represented a dramatic escalation that violates international human rights law.
“The sheer scale of executions in Iran is staggering and represents a grave violation of the right to life,” the experts said. “With an average of more than nine hangings per day in recent weeks, Iran appears to be conducting executions at an industrial scale that defies all accepted standards of human rights protection.”
At least 1,000 executions have been documented since 1 January 2025 to date. Due to Iran’s lack of transparency, the actual number is likely to be significantly higher.
Most of the known executions were for drug-related offences and murder, followed by security-related charges and rape. Among those executed were at least 58 Afghans, including 57 men and one woman.
“The extensive use of the death penalty for drug-related offences is particularly alarming,” the experts said. “At least 499 individuals were executed for drug-related crimes in less than nine months of 2025– a dramatic increase from the 24-30 executions per year recorded between 2018 and 2020.”
“While the 2017 amendment to the Law on Combating Illicit Drugs was initially welcomed for narrowing the use of the mandatory death penalty, this progress has been reversed with executions surging after 2021,” they said.
International law restricts capital punishment to only the ‘most serious crimes’— interpreted as intentional murder. “Drug offences do not meet this threshold,” the experts said.
Drug executions severely affect marginalised communities facing economic hardship from ethnic minority backgrounds. Almost all face confiscation of their limited assets, including family homes and farmland. Only a fraction of executions is announced through official sources, with Revolutionary Court proceedings taking place behind closed doors.
Iran also executed 10 individuals on espionage charges, with eight executions carried out after 13 June following Israel’s military aggression.
A new espionage bill introduced after the military escalation significantly expands the scope of conduct considered espionage to include activities linked to dissemination of information and media work, such as contact with foreign and diaspora media outlets.
Iran must immediately establish an official moratorium on all executions, provide data on death sentences and executions, treat people humanely at all times and ensure compliance with international fair trial standards, while working towards complete abolition of the death penalty, the experts said.
They noted that with further amendment to the 2017 Law on Combating Illicit Drugs currently being reviewed by the Majles, Iranian authorities have a critical opportunity to restore progress, reverse this alarming trend and end capital punishment for drug-related crimes.
“The international community cannot remain silent in the face of such systematic violations of the right to life,” the experts said. “States must take concrete diplomatic action to pressure Iran to halt this execution spree.”
