Death Penalty News

The Indian courts gave 109 death sentences last year, but the country did not execute anyone, according to Amnesty International. The number of death sentences imposed last year were 27 fewer than the 136 in 2016, the human rights organisation said in its report, Death Sentences and Executions 2017 , released here on Thursday. Last year, 51 death penalties were imposed for murder alone, down from 87 in 2016, the London-based organisation said quoting the National Law University's Centre on Death Penalty. For murder charges involving sex offences, 43 death sentences were handed out.  Two death sentences were imposed for drug-related offences. The report said it also "monitors daily developments on the use of death penalty" and that the number of death sentences it collected were lower than that of the National Law University. Overall, there were 371 people on death row in India. The report said that it had recorded commutations of death penal...

Iran Human Rights (April 12, 2018): A prisoner who was allegedly sentenced to death on murder charges was executed at Kerman Central Prison. According to Baluch Activists Campaign, on the morning of Tuesday, April 10, a prisoner was executed at Kerman Central Prison.  The prisoner, identified as Omid Damani, 33, was charged with murder. Habibollah Sarbazi, Baluch human rights activist, told IHR, “Omid Damani was most probably executed on murder charges, and he was also charged with sedition. However, the exact charges are not indicated yet.” The prisoner was buried in Iranshahr on April 12. According to Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty, 240 of the 517 execution sentences in 2017 were implemented due to murder charges. There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and intent. Source: Iran Human Rights , April 13, 2018 ⚑ | Re...

In a report released on April 12, London-based international human rights watchdog Amnesty International said “more than half (51%) of all recorded executions in 2017 were carried out in Iran.” Iran ranks second in the world after China in terms of executions and has “carried out 84% of the global total number of executions with Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan.” However, Amnesty International has observed that there has been “a slight decrease (5%) in execution figures” in Iran compared to 2016. The report said Iran is one of the 23 countries that have not yet abolished the death penalty. According to Amnesty International, “Iran executed at least 507 people, accounting for 60% of all confirmed executions in the region.” Out of the 507 individuals executed in Iran last year, “501 were men and 6 were women. At least 5 juvenile offenders were executed and 31 executions were carried out publicly. The executions were carried out for murder (240); drug trafficking (20...

Following the publication of Amnesty International annual report, 'The State of the World's Human Rights 2017/2018,' Amnesty International Morocco accused the El Othmani government of instrumentalizing religion to violate scores of human rights. In a report published on April 13, Assabah said that the executive director of Amnesty International Morocco, expressed the human rights organization's concerns over the Moroccan government's use of religion for its own political ends. The newspaper reports that the executive director the NGO's Morocco branch, Salah Abdellaoui, made his remarks during a conference on Thursday, April 12. Speaking about the 'rampant' human rights abuses, Mr. Abdellaoui reportedly criticized the government for its inflexibility on some articles in the civil and criminal codes. Singling out the state of death penalty in Morocco, Salah Abdellaoui allegedly said that the government refuses to take bold steps to abolish c...

Over 100 death sentences were handed out last year by courts in India which also expanded the scope of capital punishment by enacting new laws against hijacking, human rights watchdog Amnesty International said. In 'The Death Sentences and Executions 2017' report released here yesterday, Amnesty said it has recorded at least 993 executions in 23 countries in 2017, down by four per cent from 2016 (1,032 executions) and 39 per cent from 2015 (when the organisation recorded 1,634 executions, the highest number since 1989). At least 2,591 death sentences in 53 countries were recorded in 2017, a significant decrease from the record-high of 3,117 recorded in 2016. These figures do not include the thousands of death sentences and executions that Amnesty International believes were imposed and implemented in China, where figures remain classified as a state secret. In India, 109 death sentences were recorded in 2017. However, there were zero executions in the country...

Nigeria imposed the highest number of death sentences in the sub-Saharan Africa region in 2017 with 621 people put to death, Amnesty International has said. The country bucked the trend seen elsewhere in the region, as Sub-Saharan Africa made great strides in the global fight to abolish the death penalty with a significant decrease in death sentences being imposed. Guinea became the 20th state in sub-Saharan Africa to abolish the death penalty for all crimes, while Kenya abolished the mandatory death penalty for murder. Burkina Faso and Chad also took steps to repeal this punishment with new or proposed laws. “The progress in sub-Saharan Africa reinforced its position as a beacon of hope for abolition. The leadership of countries in this region gives fresh hope that the abolition of the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment is within reach. Unfortunately, some states in Nigeria continue to expand the scope of death sentences,” said Amnesty Internationa...

Amnesty International has slammed Pakistan's military courts for violating UN principles and international fair trial standards in imposing death sentences. Amnesty International's report -- Death Sentences and Executions 2017 - released here on Thursday, expressed concern that Pakistan's military courts "were run by military officers subordinate to the military chain of command - and who had no formal legal training - in breach of the UN Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary". "The charges against the defendants were not made public and those convicted did not have the right to appeal to civilian courts," it said. The report said that Pakistani military courts also sentenced civilians to death and added that its special courts "whose proceedings did not meet international fair trial standards imposed death sentences". Pakistan's Field General Court Martial (FGCM) in April 2017 sentenced Indian national Ku...

Tunisia has failed to take steps to abolish its law on the death penalty, Amnesty International said in its latest report. Since the early 1990s, no death sentences have been carried out in Tunisia but the death penalty still exists in the country. At the end of last year, 77 people were on death row in Tunisian prisons and 25 Tunisian courts handed down death sentences in connection with national security crimes, an increase from 44 in 2016. According to a poll by the 3C Studies Institute, 70 per cent of Tunisians are in favour of the death penalty. Moreover, the new anti-terrorism law, passed in July 2015, has maintained the death penalty despite calls to abolish it. Since independence, Tunisia has completed 135 executions. Amnesty also deplored the fact that the measure of death sentences in Algeria has not been properly recorded due to authorities not making official data public. Amnesty recorded 27 death sentences in Algeria last year, less than the 50 recorded ...

Amnesty International Malaysia (AIM) has lauded the government's move to amend the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 to give judges discretion over the previously mandatory death penalty. At the launch of its Global Report: Death Sentences and Executions 2017, AIM executive director Gwen Lee said the move, though small, was still positive and that the government was progressing towards eliminating capital punishment. However, she questioned the impact the amendment will have on reducing executions in the country. "Those convicted of transporting, sending or delivering a prohibited substance who were also found to have cooperated with law enforcement in disrupting drug trafficking activities have an alternative sentence of life imprisonment and no less than 15 strokes of the whip. "While this might seem like a positive move, it is unclear what impact these changes will have on reducing the number of people executed as the alternative punishment still amounts to t...

Iran carried out more than 1/2 of all recorded executions in 2017, a new report from Amnesty International revealed on Thursday. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq are responsible for carrying out 85 % of all reported death sentences worldwide, the report said. The figures show that the Middle East and North Africa accounted for 847 of 933 reported death sentences carried out worldwide in 2017. This was despite an overall decrease of 1 % in executions across the region against figures from 2016, the report said. Figures for China, where thousands are thought to be executed every year, were not recorded. The report also does not include figures for executions in Libya and Syria, where militant groups are thought to be responsible for thousands of extra-judicial killings. Lucy Wake, Amnesty International UK's government and political relations manager, told MEE: "Aside from China, the bulk of the world's executions are taking place in the Middle East, which s...