The number of people executed worldwide rose to its highest level in 44 years in 2025, with 2,707 people put to death across 17 countries — a 78 percent increase compared to the previous year, according to Amnesty International's annual report. Iran alone accounted for 2,159 of those executions, more than double its tally from the year before, and roughly 80 percent of the global total. Saudi Arabia ranked second with 356 executions. The figures represent the highest recorded death toll since Amnesty began tracking executions in 1981.

Iran's sharp rise is closely tied to its political crackdown following nationwide unrest. A major uprising in January 2025 was suppressed with lethal force, and in the months since, the authorities have dramatically accelerated the use of the death penalty against those it accused of participating in protests, spying for Israel or the United States, or affiliating with exiled opposition groups. Since an armed confrontation with the US and Israel that began in late February, the UN says it has verified at least 32 political executions, with a total of 45 on politically motivated charges recorded across 2025 as a whole. Human rights groups report that trials have been swift, opaque, and frequently based on confessions extracted under torture. The UN Human Rights Office has warned that the death penalty is increasingly being weaponised to silence dissent.

Individual cases illustrate the pattern. Mehrab Abdollahzadeh, a 29-year-old Kurdish shopkeeper arrested during the 2022 protests that followed the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, recorded a voice message from Oromiyeh Central Prison before his execution earlier this year, saying he had been tortured into a false confession and was innocent. He was executed without prior notice to his family or lawyers, and his body was not returned to his relatives. Erfan Shakourzadeh, a 29-year-old aerospace engineering student, was hanged in May after being convicted of sharing classified information with foreign intelligence agencies — charges he also denied in a written note, citing eight and a half months of torture and solitary confinement.

Beyond Iran, the global picture reflects a small number of governments driving the overall trend. Ten countries — including China, Egypt, Iraq, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, the United States, Vietnam, and Yemen — have carried out executions every year for the past five years. China's figures remain a state secret, but Amnesty estimates they run "probably into the thousands," making it the world's largest executioner by likely volume. In the United States, executions nearly doubled, with close to half taking place in the state of Florida. Kuwait tripled its number of executions, while Egypt and Singapore also saw figures nearly double. Four countries — the United Arab Emirates, Japan, South Sudan, and Taiwan — resumed executions after a pause. Nearly half of all recorded executions globally were for drug-related offences.

Amnesty International nonetheless pointed to signs of progress. Vietnam abolished the death penalty for eight offences, Gambia removed it for murder and crimes against the state, and Kyrgyzstan's Constitutional Court struck down an attempt to reinstate capital punishment. Legislative proposals to abolish the death penalty are under consideration in Lebanon and Nigeria. "Abolition is achievable if we sustain this resistance together," said Wies De Graeve of Amnesty International Flanders. "We must strengthen the momentum toward abolition until the death penalty belongs to the past everywhere."