THE number of executions across the globe almost doubled in 2008, and Asian countries led the world in the use of the death penalty, Amnesty International revealed yesterday.
The findings, released in the human rights organisation's annual survey of global death penalty use from January to December last year, show that at least 2,390 people were executed in 25 countries last year, up from 1,252 in 2007.
Meanwhile, at least 8,864 death sentences were handed down in 52 countries.
On the one hand, said Amnesty, there was comparatively good news in that only 25 or 1 in 8 countries carried out executions last year. Slightly more than one in four, or 59, retain the punishment.
However, the organisation warned that executions were carried out at a rate of about 7 a day during 2008. China alone was known to have carried out 1,718 executions, although Amnesty said the total figure was "undoubtedly" higher.
10 other countries from Asia Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, North Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Singapore and Vietnam also carried out judicial killings.
Notable among these is Japan, which carried out 15 executions, the highest number in the country since 1975.
Meanwhile Belarus, which executed 4 people last year, is shown to be the only remaining executioner in Europe.
Irene Khan, Amnesty International's secretary-general, said: "The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Beheadings, electrocutions, hangings, lethal injections, shootings and stonings have no place in the 21st century.
"Capital punishment is not just an act but a legalised process of physical and psychological terror that culminates in people being killed by the state. It must be brought to an end."
Kate Allen, the organisation's UK director, said: "Japan's use of the death penalty is a hidden scandal.
"Death row prisoners are effectively turned into ghosts banned from talking to other prisoners and forbidden from watching television or engaging in meaningful activities.
"Perhaps most shockingly of all, Japanese prisoners are often denied information about their own executions until the last moment.
"The first they may know of their impending death is when guards come to collect them from their cells in the morning.
"Japan should impose a moratorium on all further executions as a matter of urgency."
Ms Khan has also voiced hopes that the United States could be heading towards abolition of the death penalty.
She cited the example of New Mexico's governor, Bill Richardson, who supports capital punishment but outlawed it earlier this year in his state over concerns that it was being misapplied.
Source: The Scotsman, March 25, 2009
