Iran carries out highest level of prisoner executions in past two decades in Oct., watchdog says
Out of the eight political prisoners Iran executed during October, Hengaw identified seven as being sentenced on charges of espionage for Israel.
Iran executed “at least 241 prisoners” throughout October, Norway-based Kurdish-Iranian watchdog Hengaw reported on Saturday.
This figure would represent the highest number of prisoner executions carried out in a month-long period in over two decades, the watchdog noted.
Notably, the previous Hengaw report, analysing the data of prisoner executions in September, also saw a then-20-year-high number of executions, at 187.
Seven out of eight political prisoners executed charged with spying for Israel, Hengaw reports
According to data provided by the watchdog, eight of the 241 prisoners executed across Iran in October were classified as political prisoners, including seven who were sentenced to death on charges of espionage for Israel. One of these executions was confirmed by the Iranian judiciary news agency Mizan on October 19.
Six out of the eight were ethnically Arab, according to Hengaw’s data.
A noose with mock flowers next to portraits of executed Iranian prisoners, and anti-regime activists in the background denouncing Iran’s death penalty policies, in Paris, France, October 11, 2025. (credit: MARTIN LELIEVRE/AFP via Getty Images)
The report analyzed that Iranian state and judiciary-affiliated media only reported on 10 cases of execution in October, representing 4% of the total numbers indicated by the watchdog.
Eight women were among the 241 prisoners executed, according to the watchdog, but they did not expand on the charges the women were sentenced under.
A majority of the executions were for charges of premeditated murder, at 124, with drug-related offenses seeing 104 executions.
The Iranian province with the highest amount of executions was Alborz, immediately west of Tehran, with 31 executions. Isfahan was second, with 21, followed by Fars with 20, Kermanshah with 17, and Razavi Khorasanan and Khuzestan with 14 each.
Kurds are ethno-national group executed at highest rate, Kurdish watchdog claims
On an ethno-national measure, the largest minority ethno-national identity executed prisoners were Kurds, at 37, followed by Lors, at 27, Turks at 17, Gilaks at 16, Arabs at 13, Balochs and Afghans at 11 each, and two Turkmens. Iran also executed 70 ethnic Persians during the month. Hengaw noted that 37 prisoners executed could not be verified under this metric.
A separate Norway-based anti-regime Iranian watchdog, Iran Human Rights (IHR), reported that Iran executed at least 1,000 in the first nine months of 2025, corroborating Hengaw’s data analysis of a peak in executions.
“The Islamic Republic has begun a mass killing campaign in Iran’s prisons, the dimensions of which, in the absence of serious international reactions, are expanding every day,” IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam told The Telegraph in September.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
