Rights group: 106 Iran protest detainees sentenced to death, 35 executed
At least 106 people arrested during Iran's January 2026 protests have been sentenced to death and 35 already executed, rights group Hengaw said in a report for World Day Against the Death Penalty.
Archive image · Photo: Hosseinronaghi / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
At least 106 people arrested during Iran's protests in January 2026 have been sentenced to death, and 35 of them have already been executed, according to a special report by the rights group Hengaw released ahead of World Day Against the Death Penalty on Oct. 10. The group says 63 people are at "serious and imminent risk of execution." Eight sentences, all in Tehran province, have been overturned, though those involved could again face death sentences on retrial.
Most death sentences were handed down in Isfahan and Tehran provinces, with 36 each, Hengaw said. At least seven women are among those sentenced, one of whom had her sentence overturned. The group is still verifying 40 further cases from cities including Shiraz, Isfahan and Mashhad. The figures could not be independently verified.
Amnesty International documented 11 public executions in Iran in 2025. According to IranWire, eight Iranian athletes also face the death penalty, not all of them arrested during the January protests. The report circulated on the day Pope Leo XIV called capital punishment "inadmissible."