An Amnesty International report says the number of known executions worldwide has risen by almost 15 percent. China remains the world champion of state executions, followed by Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
According to the report, released on Wednesday, there were 778 judicial executions in 22 countries last year, following a surge in Iran and Iraq, but those numbers don’t include the thousands of people put to death in China, more than the rest of the world put together.
Although Beijing said in November it would reduce the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty from the current 55, it has yet to release any concrete data. Amnesty said Chinese authorities "continue to treat the figures on death sentences and executions as a state secret".
Excluding China, almost 80 percent of all known executions were recorded in just three countries: Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. For the first time since 2009, both Europe and Central Asia had no reported executions.
Officially, Iran put 369 people to death, but Amnesty said “credible sources” reported at least 335 more. Iraq executed at least 169 people, a steep increase from last year, with death sentences often passed after “grossly unfair trials”. The report could not confirm executions in Syria and Egypt.
The report from the London-based human rights organisation comes just days after an Egyptian court sentenced 529 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death in a single trial.
Coming in at number 5 this year, supposed beacon of progress and freedom America is also fond of killing its own citizens, mainly in Texas. Although it ‘merely’ executed 39 people last year, it is the only country in North or South America to do so.
Worldwide, people were executed for crimes including: murder, rape, treason, collaboration with foreign entities, ‘aggravated’ robbery, drug-related offences, economic crimes (China, North Korea and Vietnam), adultery (Saudi Arabia), blasphemy (Pakistan, Iran), enmity against God (Iran); and, in North Kore,a for escaping to China, watching pornography and watching banned videos from South Korea.
Known methods of execution include old fashioned beheading, electrocution, death by firing squad, hanging and lethal injection. Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Somalia still carry out their executions in public, the report noted.
Amnesty secretary general Salil Shetty said his organization “urges all governments who still kill in the name of justice to impose a moratorium on the death penalty immediately, with a view to abolishing it".
Maybe they could follow Sri Lanka's example. Not only has that country not executed anyone since 1976, it can’t even find a new executioner since the last one fled after seeing his gallows in person.
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