Death Penalty News

Although mandatory death penalty was abolished in 2023, many death sentences in Malaysia still involve drug offences. Concerned about the situation, Amnesty International (AI) calls for a moratorium, highlighting human rights violations. For AI Interim Executive Director Vilasini Vijandran, the country’s credibility is undermined. The gap between lower and higher courts on this matter is growing.

The number of executions in Saudi Arabia doubled in 2024 as the Middle East led a global surge, according to a new report by Amnesty International . Rights groups say the trend has continued into 2025. Recorded executions in the kingdom doubled in comparison with 2023, largely for terrorism and drug related offences, Amnesty International said in a new report. Saudi Arabia carried out at least 345 death penalty executions in 2024, compared to 172 in the previous year, marking the highest recorded number by the monitoring group in any given year. The only two countries that executed more people were China and Iran. It said Iran had executed at least 972 people and China was believed to have executed thousands, but it did not have a figure.