Overview

• At least 64 people were executed in the past week alone, averaging nine hangings per day, according to Iran Human Rights (IHR).
• The year-to-date toll already surpasses IHR’s 2024 total of at least 975 and is the highest since the group began tracking in 2008.
• IHR’s director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, describes a “campaign of massacres” in prisons and alleges the pattern may meet the threshold for crimes against humanity.
• IHR data attribute roughly half of executions to drug-trafficking offenses, 43% to murder, 3% to security-related charges, 3% to rape, and 1% to alleged espionage for Israel.
• Rights groups say the true numbers are likely higher due to official secrecy, and they rank Iran second globally for executions after China, as President Massoud Pezeshkian heads to the UN General Assembly.