Amnesty: 'Disturbing' Rise in Executions Worldwide in 2015

• Published date: 06 April 2016
• Publication title: Saudi Arabia News Gazette

LONDON: 6 April 2016 (VOA) More people were put to death in countries around the world last year than in any other year during the past quarter-century, Amnesty International said Tuesday.

The report said at least 1,634 people were executed in 2015, a rise of 54 percent from the year before and the highest number the human rights watchdog has recorded since 1989.

Executions were carried out in 25 countries, but just three - Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan -- accounted for 90 percent of all recorded executions.

Pakistan ends moratorium

In Pakistan, the December 2014 Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar that killed 141 people led the government to end its moratorium on executions.

"Initially the moratorium was meant to be lifted only for terrorism-related crimes," said Chiara Sangiorgio, death penalty researcher at Amnesty International. "But very soon, we saw persons being sent to the gallows for murder or other ordinary crimes, often on the basis of trials that leave a lot of doubts about the safety of the conviction."

FILE - Activists from a civil organization reenact an execution scene in front of the Saudi Arabia Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, April 1 2010.

Amnesty said at least 158 people were executed in Saudi Arabia, a predominantly Sunni country. Among those executed was Shi'ite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Riyadh said it uses the death penalty against terrorists, but Amnesty claims it is often used against political dissidents.

Drug offenses

In Iran, many executions were carried out for drug-related offenses.

"A significant proportion of the 977 executions that we recorded for Iran were carried out for drug-related offenses - even if international law clearly states that the use of the death penalty should be restricted to intentional killing," Sangiorgio said.

Iran is one of the last countries to execute child offenders...