Death Penalty News

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia has announced plans to ratify a key UN treaty that would permanently prohibit the reintroduction of the death penalty, reinforcing more than three decades of constitutional abolition. The announcement was made by Minister of Justice Koeut Rith during the Ninth World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held in Paris from June 30 to July 2. Rith reaffirmed the Royal Government’s commitment to ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), an international treaty aimed at the global abolition of capital punishment.

Saudi Arabia’s execution of more than 2,000 people over the last decade in many cases violates Saudi and international law and belies the government’s claims of reform, 36 groups including Human Rights Watch said today. The following is their statement:  As of early April 2026, the number of executions carried out by Saudi Arabia since King Salman bin Abdulaziz’s accession to the throne on January 23, 2015—and the subsequent appointment of his son, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, on June 21, 2017—has surpassed 2,000, according to the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), marking a stark escalation in the use of capital punishment under their rule. 

Kyrgyzstan has reaffirmed its commitment to human rights and the rule of law after its Constitutional Court rejected a proposal to reinstate the death penalty, despite strong public outrage following a tragic crime. The proposal emerged after the rape and murder of a young girl in September 2025 sparked nationwide anger and calls for stricter punishment. Responding to public sentiment, President Sadyr Japarov had submitted an amendment seeking to assess whether capital punishment could be reintroduced. However, on December 10, the Constitutional Court ruled that reinstating the death penalty would violate Kyrgyzstan’s international treaty obligations and declared the proposal unconstitutional.

MALÉ, Maldives (DPN) — The Maldives has officially brought into force an amendment to its Narcotics Act that introduces the death penalty for large-scale drug trafficking, marking a significant and controversial shift in the island nation’s criminal justice policy. The amended law, which took effect Saturday, March 7, 2026, allows for capital punishment in cases involving the smuggling and importation of specific quantities of illicit substances. The move fulfills a key pledge by President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s administration to crack down on the country’s growing narcotics crisis and protect what he has termed the nation’s “100 percent Islamic society.” Thresholds for Capital Punishment Under the new provisions, the death penalty is not a mandatory sentence but an available option for the judiciary when specific criteria are met. The law establishes clear weight thresholds for substances brought into the country: Cannabis: More than 350 grams. Diamorphine (Heroin): More than 250 grams....

Hostages should be given "the honor of pressing the button" to carry out death penalties for Hamas terrorists, former Gaza hostage Eliya Cohen said in an Instagram post on Tuesday, in response to a Hamas statement criticizing Otzma Yehudit's death penalty bill. "Raping, murdering, smashing heads, desecrating bodies, burning babies, kidnapping civilians, and torturing them 24/7, is that not a violation of the international convention?" Cohen wrote.

Osaka, Jan. 16 (Jiji Press)--Osaka District Court on Friday dismissed a request from three death-row inmates for the state to ban executions by hanging. The three, whose death sentences have been finalized, claimed that executions by hanging are against an international treaty that prohibits cruel punishments. Noting that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the Japanese government, prohibits inhumane and cruel punishments, the plaintiff side claimed that executions by hanging are “cruel and should not be allowed to continue.”

Hengaw warns of imminent execution of Erfan Soltani just days after arrest  Erfan Soltani, a resident of Fardis, Karaj, who was arrested during recent protests in the city, is facing the imminent execution of a death sentence following a rapid and opaque judicial process. His family learned only days after his arrest that the execution is scheduled to take place this Wednesday.  According to reports received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Erfan Soltani, a 26-year-old detainee arrested in connection with the ongoing protests, is at immediate risk of execution. His family has been denied access to any information regarding the charges, case file, or judicial proceedings. 

New drugs and med­ical treat­ments under­go rig­or­ous test­ing to ensure they are safe and effec­tive for pub­lic use. Under fed­er­al and state reg­u­la­tions, this test­ing typ­i­cal­ly involves clin­i­cal tri­als with human sub­jects, who face sig­nif­i­cant health and safe­ty risks as the first peo­ple exposed to exper­i­men­tal treat­ments. That is why the law requires them to be ful­ly informed of the poten­tial effects and give their vol­un­tary con­sent to par­tic­i­pate in trials. Yet these reg­u­la­tions have not been fol­lowed when states seek to use nov­el and untest­ed exe­cu­tion meth­ods — sub­ject­ing pris­on­ers to poten­tial­ly tor­tur­ous and uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly painful deaths. Some experts and advo­cates argue that states must be bound by the eth­i­cal and human rights prin­ci­ples of bio­med­ical research before using these meth­ods on prisoners.

Reacting to the news that Saudi authorities executed Jalal Labbad on August 21, 2025 for crimes allegedly committed when he was under 18 years of age [a child], Bissan Fakih, Amnesty International’s Middle East Campaigner, said: “Saudi Arabia’s execution of Jalal Labbad is deplorable and underscores the devastating toll of the authorities’ ruthless use of the death penalty in complete disregard of one of the most absolute prohibitions to its use. The imposition of the death penalty for crimes allegedly committed by people when they were children is prohibited under international human rights law and customary international law.

In a major blow to Japan’s human rights record, the country has resumed executions after nearly three years, putting Takahiro Shiraishi to death on Friday 27 June 2025. This marked the end of a two-year, 11-month hiatus – the longest pause since the Ministry of Justice began publicly disclosing the names and crimes of death row inmates in 2007. With this execution, Japan has reaffirmed its place within the shrinking group of nations that continue to execute their captive citizens.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday acquitted Anwar Kenneth, a 72-year-old Christian man who spent more than two decades on death row under a blasphemy conviction, citing mental illness as a key factor in its ruling. Kenneth, a former government employee, was arrested in 2001 after allegedly writing letters deemed blasphemous toward the majority religion. In 2002, he was sentenced to death under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code and fined five million rupees. Despite concerns over his mental health and reports of a coerced guilty plea, the Lahore High Court upheld the conviction in 2014.

HRANA News Agency – The head of the Judiciary in Isfahan Province has confirmed that the amputation sentences for two individuals convicted of theft were carried out in Dastgerd Prison, Isfahan. According to HRANA, citing ISNA, the punishments were enforced following the completion of all judicial procedures.  The individuals were sentenced after their cases were reviewed by the prosecutor’s office, the preliminary court, and the provincial appeals court, with the verdicts ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court.

Vietnam proposes to replace capital punishment with life sentences for certain non-violent crimes. According to Truong Viet Toan, former Deputy Chief Judge of the Criminal Court under the Hanoi People’s Court, the Ministry of Public Security’s proposal to abolish the death penalty for eight criminal offenses reflects a progressive step that aligns with Vietnam’s deepening international integration, especially in the judicial sector. Currently, under the existing Penal Code, 18 offenses are subject to capital punishment. However, the Ministry of Public Security has pointed out that recent judicial practices show that the death penalty is either no longer necessary or rarely applied for some of these crimes.

Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia executed 1,380 people last year—highest in decade Amnesty International’s monitoring of the global use of the death penalty recorded 1,518 executions in 2024, an increase of 32% from 1,153 in 2023. For the second consecutive year, executing countries reached the lowest number on record. The global spike in known executions was due to a considerable rise in the numbers recorded in Iran , Iraq and Saudi Arabia , where executions increased altogether from 1,041 in 2023 to 1,380 in 2024. This constitutes approximately 91% of all known executions globally.

In pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, capital punishment was not merely a legal sanction, but a profound ritualistic act deeply embedded within cosmological beliefs. Civilizations like the Aztecs viewed human life as a commodity to be offered to the gods to maintain cosmic balance and ensure the continuation of the world.  The practice of human sacrifice, a form of state-sanctioned execution, was central to their religious and political systems. The methods of execution were diverse and often brutal, designed to be both a punishment and a dramatic offering. Heart extraction, where the still-beating heart was offered to the sun god Huitzilopochtli, was perhaps the most iconic. Other methods included decapitation, stoning, immolation, and ritualistic combat followed by sacrifice. 

In 2007, the Philippines signed and ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which refers to the abolition of the death penalty. The Philippines has voted in favor of a global moratorium on the death penalty at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. During Wednesday’s plenary session of the UNGA, the Philippines joined 129 other countries, representing more than two-thirds of the members, in voting in favor of the resolution. At least 32 countries voted against the resolution proposed by Argentina and Italy on behalf of an Inter-Regional Task Force of member states and co-sponsored by 70 states, while 22 countries abstained.

Many Were Child Brides Hanged for Murder of Abusive Husbands From Whom There Was No Protection  December 18, 2024 — Amidst a huge surge in executions in the Islamic Republic— 862 so far in 2024, the highest per capita execution rate globally—the Iranian authorities are now increasingly including women in those it sends to the gallows. Since the start of 2024, Iran has executed at least 29 women. More executions of women may have taken place that are unknown.

Armin and Hatef, the primary and secondary suspects in the robbery of safety deposit boxes at the University Branch of Bank Melli, were sentenced to hand amputation by the Tehran Province Criminal Court.  The Supreme Court of Iran has also charged them with “corruption on earth,” which could lead to severe punishments such as the death penalty.  

October 30, 2024 – Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have raised urgent alarms over escalating human rights abuses in Iran, where both corporal punishments and executions are being enforced at alarming rates. Amnesty International reports that five men held at Urumieh Central Prison in West Azerbaijan Province – Hadi Rostami, Kasra Karami, Mehdi Shahivand, Mehdi Sharifian, and Morteza Esmaeilian – are at immediate risk of having their fingers amputated by Iranian authorities. This follows the October 29 use of a guillotine machine by prison officials to amputate four fingers from the right hands of two other men, brothers Mehrdad and Shahab Teymouri, who were transferred to solitary confinement just prior to their punishment.

This investigative report uncovers a punitive approach employed by Syrian security forces following the detention of minors. Children were held without trial until they reached the legal age of 18, at which point they were transferred to Military Field Courts. Additionally, the Syrian regime used illegal methods to issue death sentences for detained minors under the Anti-Terrorism Law (No. 19 of 2012). Investigation by Ali Al Ibrahim and Mohamad Skaf