Iran carries the highest rate of execution of prisoners in two decades in Oct., the Watchdog says
Of the eight political prisoners in Iran who were executed in October, Hengaw identified seven as being convicted of crimes against Israel.
Iran executed “at least 241 prisoners” throughout October, the Norway-based Kurdish-Iranian Watchdog Hengaw reported on Saturday.
This number may represent the highest number of executions of prisoners committed over a long period of time in two decades, the Watchdog noted.
Notably, a previous hengaw report, analyzing data on inmate homicides in September, also saw a 20-year high for homicides, at 187.
Seven out of eight political prisoners committed for spying on Israel, HENENAW reports
According to information provided by the watchdog, eight prisoners who were executed across Iran in October were classified as political prisoners, including seven sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against the Israeli regime. One of these executions was confirmed by the Iranian Judiciary News Agency Mizan on October 19.
Six out of six were Arab in character, according to Hengaw’s data.
A noose with funny flowers next to the prisoners behind the Iranian, and anti-reganime activists in the background are releasing the sanctions policies of Iran, Paris, 2025. (Credit: Martin Lelievre / AFP via Getty Images)
The report analyzed that Iranian state sources and the corresponding judiciary report 10 cases of execution in October, representing 4% of the total numbers shown by the watchdog.
8 women were among the 241 prisoners who were executed, according to the watchdog, but those who were convicted of crimes against women were sentenced to less.
Most of the murders involved extrajudicial killings, 124, with drug-related crimes accounting for 104 murders.
The Iranian province with the highest number of homicides was Alborz, immediately west of Tehran, with 31 homicides. Isfahan was second, at 21, followed by Mali at 20, Kermanhah at 17, and Razavi Khorasanan and Kuzestan at 14.
Kurds are an Ethno-National Proep group killed at a very high rate, Kurdish Watchdogs
According to the Ethno-National average, the biggest prisoners of the Ethno-National identity of the prisoners were Kurds, with 37, Turks with 17, Arabs with 16, Alochs and Afghans with 11 each, two Turkmens. Iran also killed 80 other nationalities during the month. Hengaw noted that 37 prisoners were made ineligible under this metric.
Iran’s separate Norwegian Watchdog based in Iran, Iran Human rights (IHR), reported that Iran carried out at least 1,000 in the first nine months of 2025, the preparation of Hengaw’s data for the peak of the killing area.
“The Islamic Republic has started a campaign to kill diplomats in Iran’s prisons, the scale of which, in the absence of a serious reaction, is increasing every day,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. The telegraph in September.
Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.
