The Islamic regime executed at least 1500 people in 2025, nearly half (47%) as a penalty for drug offences, according to a release published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Monday.
Noting the regime has used killings “as a tool of State intimidation,” the high commissioner said that the executions had a “disproportionate impact on ethnic minorities and migrants.”
While global trends in 2025 saw countries reduce the number of crimes met with the death penalty, the total number last year exceeded that of previous years, the office confirmed.
“My Office monitored an alarming increase in the use of capital punishment in 2025, especially for offences not meeting the ‘most serious crimes’ threshold required under international law, the continued execution of people convicted of crimes committed as children, as well as persistent secrecy around executions,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said.
Amnesty International had previously warned that Tehran uses ambiguous charges when pursuing the death sentence. Those facing sentencing of moharebeh (“enmity against God), efsad-e fel-arz (corruption on earth), and bagha (armed rebellion against the state) do not receive fair trials, the group added, noting that they appear before the closed-door Revolutionary Courts in a break from standard procedure.
Murder of Mahsa Amini by Iranian regime
Human rights groups warned the regime stepped up executions in response to the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom protests, which erupted in response to the regime’s murder of Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in custody, and against the 12 Day war against Israel in June.
An additional 356 people, including two children, were executed in Saudi Arabia last year. The majority (78%) were killed for drug-related offences.
The office noted that the true extent of executions in 2025 was difficult to surmise, as executions in China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea were shrouded in secrecy.
Without mentioning the parameters that would lead to execution in Israel, OCHR also condemned plans for Israel to start executing convicted terrorists, citing that such a law would only apply to Palestinians. The death penalty law would see military courts impose death penalties for all convictions for intentional killing in the West Bank.
In the same paragraph, the office condemned Hamas’s executions but did not touch upon the numbers or the alleged crimes that led to their murder.
“The death penalty is not an effective crime-control tool, and it can lead to the execution of innocent people,” Türk said. “In practice, the death penalty is also often applied arbitrarily and discriminatorily, in violation of fundamental principles of equality before the law.”