Death Penalty News

Our recent round-up of interesting facts about Belarus - published to coincide with the 25th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union - unearthed some remarkable things. The country is the booziest on Earth , it gave us Viber, and is home to some of the continent's last remaining bison. It is also the only nation in Europe that retains the death penalty. As the map on the left shows, every other European country has abolished it (Russia has abolished it in practice, and has not executed anyone since 1996).  But in Belarus - often dubbed "Europe's last dictatorship" - it continues, with 12 executions taking place in the last seven years and more than 200 since 1990.  Just four countries considered to be industrialised still execute criminals:  The US Japan Singapore Taiwan  The most recent countries to abolish all capital punishment are: Guinea (2016) Nauru (2016) Congo (2015) Suriname (2015) Fiji (2015) Madagascar (20...

'The Walls' Unit, Huntsville, Texas What do Texas, Missouri, Georgia and Florida have in common with China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia? All are outliers in their continued use of the death penalty , which is being abandoned in most of the rest of the United States and the world. Those four states were responsible for all but two of America’s 28 executions last year. Likewise, those four countries account for the overwhelming majority of global executions, according to a new report by  Amnesty International . The report documented 1,634 executions globally in 2015, not counting China, which executes more people than all other countries combined, but provides little reliable information. There are many more executions that are not included in Amnesty’s global count, which is restricted to “judicial” executions — those that result from a formal trial process, whether or not that process meets international standards of fairness — and excludes some secret executi...

Rashid Kouhi Iran's fundamentalist regime on Saturday executed student Rashid Kouhi despite an appeal by Amnesty International for the sentence to be halted. Mr. Kouhi, 36, was executed earlier in the day on Saturday in Rasht's Lakan Prison in Gilan Province, northern Iran, sources said. On Friday Amnesty International said Mr. Kouhi's scheduled execution demonstrated the Iranian authorities' utter disregard for the right to life and their determination to continue with a staggering execution spree that saw nearly 1000 people put to death last year. Family members of Rashid Kouhi received a call from prison authorities on Thursday informing them that they should go to Lakan Prison to have a final meeting with him on Friday before his execution the following day. Rashid Kouhi was arrested at a checkpoint in Roudbar, Gilan province on August 24, 2011. "The officers who stopped him conducted a search of his bag where they found 800 grams of cr...

The execution comes just days after Amnesty International called out Pakistan for being the world's 3rd most prolific executioner Pakistan on Saturday, April 9, hanged two brothers convicted of murdering 6 people from the same family, just days after Amnesty International criticized the country for becoming the world's 3rd most prolific executioner after China and Iran. Nasir Mehmood and Tahir Iqbal were hanged in a jail in the eastern Pakistani city of Sialkot early Saturday for the 2002 murders, senior prison official Chaudhry Arshad Saeed Arain told AFP. The hanged men killed 6 members of a family over a land dispute, jail officials said. No further details were available. A 6-year moratorium on the death penalty was lifted in Pakistan after Taliban attackers gunned down more than 150 people, most of them children, at an army-run school in Peshawar in December 2014. Hangings were initially reinstated only for those convicted of terrorism, but in March ...

Execution chamber (gallows) at Tokyo Detention Center LONDON — Japan is swimming against the tide of international opinion on the death penalty and needs to follow the lead of the United States and start properly debating the issue, Amnesty International said Wednesday at the launch of its annual death penalty report. Campaigners said they were disheartened at the lack of progress in Japan at either improving the rights of those on death row or talking about the subject in the public arena. The organization which champions human rights across the globe is disappointed that the introduction of lay judges—some of whom have had to make decisions on whether to impose the death penalty—and the release from prison of the world’s longest serving death row inmate, have not led to any improvements or fresh thinking. Amnesty spokeswoman Chiara Sangiorgio told Kyodo News, “We still have death sentences being imposed, including by lay judges—although some have requested more trans...

Saudi policemen in Riyadh, KSA The UK's national College of Policing has earned 6.2 million pounds in the last 3 years through overseas training contracts, a freedom of information request has shown. Britain's College of Policing, the professional body for police training, has made millions of pounds in the last 3 years by training forces in countries that use the death penalty. Among the countries where the college offers training in "leadership, forensics and intelligence" are Bahrain, China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Uganda. In all, 21 of the countries where the college operates training programmes have the death penalty. Yesterday Amnesty International revealed that executions worldwide are at a 25-year-high, with at least 158 people killed in 2015 in Saudi Arabia alone. At least 25 of the countries in which the college operates have forces that have been accused by campaigners of human rights abuses and torture. BuzzFeed News has seen a docume...

With executions skyrocketing among US allies, some authority might come in handy right about now State-sponsored executions are at their highest level in 25 years, according to a report released this week by Amnesty International. In 2015, the report tallied 1,634 people executed worldwide — a more than 50% increase over 2014. The real number is probably much higher, since China is estimated to be the world’s most prolific executioner, but its death toll is a closely guarded state secret. Of the countries included in the report, 89% of last year’s executions took place in Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. While these countries are no stranger to capital punishment, their 2015 stats are a dramatic increase from prior years. What we’re witnessing is an alarming surge in executions among America’s official and unofficial allies in the Middle East. The US is the only Western country to still use the death penalty. It keeps company with the countries mentioned above — China,...

A Chinese police officer lights an inmate's cigarette shortly before his execution. The Chinese government said Amnesty International has "biased opinions" on China and refused to comment on its death penalty report released on Wednesday, which estimates that "thousands" were executed in China last year. Asked at a press conference about the AI report, spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry Lu Kang refused to comment and said AI tends to have biased opinions on China. According to the human rights organization, the number of death penalty executions in 2015 at 1,634 were the highest in 25 years. The global rise in the figure was attributed to 3 countries - Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan - who were responsible for 89 % of all the executions carried out in 2015, excluding China. Data from the world's 2nd largest economy were not included as China considers this information to be a "State secret," although the AI report not...

Public execution in Iran Iran's regime executed close to a thousand people, including juvenile offenders, in 2015 and largely fueled the "dramatic global rise" in the number of executions recorded last year which saw more people put to death than at any point in the last quarter-century, Amnesty International said in a report on Wednesday. "Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to at least 743 the year before," Amnesty International wrote in its annual Death penalty 2015 report. "Iran is also one of the world's last executioners of juvenile offenders, in flagrant breach of international law," the report said. The Iranian regime put to death at least four people who were under 18 at the time of the crime for which they were convicted in 2015, the human rights group said. "Iran alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded" in the Middle East and North Africa, Amnesty said, adding that the regime con...

Meth bust at a Malaysian airport It is an international embarrassment that Malaysia is 1 out of only 24 United Nations member states that still practises the death penalty, said Amnesty International Malaysia executive director Shamini Darshni. " The recent triple executions cheapen suggestions by Attorney-General Apandi Ali and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nancy Shukri, who both agree that death penalty reforms are due." Last year saw the highest number of executions carried out around the world in the last 25 years, according to Amnesty International. According to Amnesty International's Death Sentences and Executions 2015 Report, at least 1,634 people were executed last year. This represented a 54% increase in the number of executions when compared with 2014. Malaysia, the report noted, was among the 5 Commonwealth member states that executed convicts, apart from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Singapore. Malaysia is also 1 ...

At least 1,634 people were executed in 25 countries in 2015. This represents a stark increase on the number of executions recorded I 2014 of more than 50%; in 2014 Amnesty International recorded 1,061 executions in 22 countries worldwide. This is the highest number of executions recorded in more than 25 years (since 1989). Most executions took place in China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the USA - in that order. China remained the world's top executioner - but the true extent of the use of the death penalty in China is unknown as this data is considered a state secret; the figure of 1,634 excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out in China. Excluding China, almost 90% of all executions took place in just three countries - Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. During 2015, 25 countries, about 1 in 10 of all countries worldwide, are known to have carried out executions - a rise from 22 in 2014. This number has decreased significantly ...

With 28 killings in 2015, the US is the only country in the Americas and among OSCE members to be on the list of top executioners published by Amnesty International, coming right after Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan. At least 1,634 people were put to death in 25 countries in 2015, Amnesty International said. Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan account for nearly 90 percent of those. The US, it appears, had more executions than Iraq last year - 28 in 6 states: Texas (13), Missouri (6), Georgia (5), Florida (2), Oklahoma (1) and Virginia (1). Last year, at least 2,851 people were under sentence of death in America, including 746 in California, 389 in Florida, 250 in Texas, 185 in Alabama and 181 in Pennsylvania, according to the report. "While the 2015 figure was the lowest number of executions recorded in a single year since 1991, the decrease was in part linked to legal challenges that resulted in the revision of lethal injection protocols or problems faced by stat...

Recorded executions worldwide surged by more than 50 % last year to the highest level in a quarter-century, a human rights group said Wednesday. Amnesty International cited the 3 executions that Japan carried out in 2015 as contributing to a total of 1,634 worldwide. The tally does not include China, where the figure is considered a state secret. "The rise in executions last year is profoundly disturbing," Amnesty Secretary-General Salil Shetty said. "In 2015 governments continued relentlessly to deprive people of their lives on the false premise that the death penalty would make us safer." In its report, Amnesty leveled additional criticism at Japan for executing or holding on death row prisoners with mental or intellectual disabilities. One of the inmates killed last year was 89-year-old Masaru Okunishi . He spent 46 years on death row, fighting to clear his name in the murders of five women. He said his confessions were forced and sought a retr...

More people were executed worldwide in 2015 than at any point in the last 25 years, according to a new report by global human rights group Amnesty International released on Wednesday. At least 1,634 people were put to death across 25 different countries, a 54% increase from the number of executions recorded the previous year. Even without the figure for China (Beijing treats its executions as a state secret), Amnesty said last year's total represented the highest it has recorded since 1989. The report also showed that nearly 90% of all recorded use of the death penalty was accounted for by just 3 countries - Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan, with the latter reinstating capital punishment in December 2014 following a 7-year moratorium. The 3 nations fall between China, which Amnesty estimates executes thousands annually, and the U.S., which rounds out the top 5 with 28 people put to death in 2015. Amnesty added that the report includes only the executions they were abl...

The number of executions carried out globally last year rose to a 25-year high, a review of the global state of the death penalty has found. According to new figures, 2015 saw a sharp rise in executions in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China and Iran, and a total of at least 1,634 people executed overall in the year.  The report, from Amnesty International, follows the news this weekend that in Saudi Arabia, over 80 people have been executed in the country since the start of 2016 – setting the Kingdom on course to double its 2015 total this year. The figures come ahead of a visit to Saudi Arabia by President Obama, expected to take place later this month. International human rights organization Reprieve, which assists juveniles and others facing execution the Kingdom, is urging the US government to use the trip to raise the cases of three juveniles - Ali al Nimr, Dawood al Marhoon and Abdullah al Zaher - who face execution after being arrested at protests. Research by ...