hold for story - Iran, Saudi Arabia Drive Spike in Global Executions, Amnesty International Says

Amnesty says the rise in executions in 2022 was led by countries in the Middle East. In Iran, the number soared from 314 in 2021 to 576 in 2022. In Saudi Arabia, the number of executions tripled from 65 in 2021 to 196 in 2022, the highest recorded in 30 years. Many are for drug-related offences. In addition to this, we should flag that penalty continue to be used in both countries as a tool of state repression. We saw, for example, towards the end of the year, Iran making a stir and using the penalty to punish the protests with executions and the sentences continuing well into 2023. In addition to that, one characteristic sadly of the use of the penalty in Iran is the disproportionate impact of executions on ethnic minorities and religious minorities.

That's a characteristic also seen in Saudi Arabia. And in fact, we had 81 executions in one day in 2022 and half of them were actually people that belong into the Shia minority in Saudi Arabia. Amnesty says it is clear that China remains the world's most prolific executioner. It remains a country that in secrecy carries out thousands of executions a year and imposes the same amount of the sentences. But it's really impossible to put a concrete number to that because of the secrecy. We have official confirmations coming from the authorities that execution for drug-related offences, for example, are carried out. The corruption is punished with the death penalty, but the numbers remain a state secret.

The use of the death penalty in North Korea and Vietnam is also shrouded in secrecy. Countries that have witnessed military coups have seen an uptick in executions. Egypt executed 24 people in 2022. Myanmar resumed the use of the death penalty for the first time since the 1980s, including democracy activist Kyo Min-yu and former lawmaker Maung Kyo. The United States saw a rise in the number of executions from 11 to 18. We still have the second lowest number of the sentences in the history of the recent history of the penalty in the US because that tells us that the mood and the opinion of the death penalty among the jurors, the seat on the penalty trial has changed. While the Amnesty report covers 2022, executions in Iran continue to rise in 2023.

At least 209 people have been put to death this year, according to the United Nations, which called for a halt to the practice. Henry Ridgwell for VUA News, London.

death penalty