The number of executions increased by 20% in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to Amnesty International

The NGO highlights that last year there were about 580 executions in 18 countries and points out that it is the second lowest figure since 2010

MADRID, 24 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The number of executions increased by 20 percent in 2021 compared to the previous year, as reported by Amnesty International on Tuesday, which has highlighted that China continues to lead the list for another year - despite not having official data. - and has added figures from North Korea and Vietnam.

The NGO has pointed out in a report that during 2021, 579 executions were registered in 18 countries, 20 percent more than the 483 in 2020, a figure that also represents the second lowest number of executions registered by the agency at least since 2010.

He also stated that most of the executions took place in China, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria, before adding that the figures exclude "thousands" of people who would have been executed in the Asian giant without official evidence. because these issues are considered a state secret.

The general secretary of the NGO, Agnès Callamard, has also criticized that "China, North Korea and Vietnam continued to hide their use of the death penalty under layers of secrecy". "As always, what we saw was cause for great alarm," she stressed, as highlighted by the NGO in its global report on death sentences and executions in 2021.

Amnesty has also pointed out that, of the total executed, 24 were women, which represents four percent of the total. Fourteen women were executed in Iran, while eight were executed in Egypt and one was executed in Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Along these lines, he also recalled that Belarus, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Japan resumed executions during 2021, although there is no record of executions in India, Qatar and Taiwan, where there were in 2020.

In the cases of Iran and Saudi Arabia, there were significant upticks in executions, with 314 executions in the first country --compared to 246 in 2020--, which is the highest number since 2017. Thus, in Saudi Arabia they were executed 65 people, an increase of 140 percent from 27 the previous year.

"After the decrease in their execution figures in 2020, Iran and Saudi Arabia once again increased the use of the death penalty during the past year, going so far as to unapologetically violate the prohibitions established in international human rights law," he said. lamented Callamard. "His eagerness to put the executioner to work does not seem to have subsided in the first months of 2022," he warned.

In the case of Iran, the authorities maintain the application of the death penalty for drug possession and the number of executions for drug-related crimes multiplied by more than a hundred to reach 132, compared to 23 in 2020. Likewise, Three people convicted of acts they committed when they were minors were executed in the country, a violation of International Law.

Amnesty has emphasized that the removal of the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, which delayed judicial processes, judges increased the issuance of death sentences, with significant increases in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

"Instead of seizing the opportunities created by the 2020 disruptions, a small number of states showed worrying enthusiasm in choosing the death penalty over effective solutions to crime, displaying a callous disregard for the right to life despite the urgent and continuing global human rights crises," Callamard lamented.

On the contrary, Amnesty has highlighted that the Parliament of Sierra Leone approved in July 2021 to abolish the death penalty, something that Kazakhstan also did in December, after entering into force that same year. Also, Papua New Guinea held a national consultation that led to the adoption of a bill in January 2022, still pending ratification.

In this way, more than two-thirds of the countries have abolished death in law or in practice by the end of 2021, although 55 still maintain it. In this context, during the past year, commutations or pardons were registered for those sentenced to death in 19 countries, while there were exonerations in another four.

In total, 2,052 death sentences were imposed in 56 countries in 2021, an increase of 39 percent from 1,477 in 54 countries in 2020. These countries include Ethiopia, Guyana, Maldives, Oman, Tanzania and Uganda, which had not issued death verdicts during 2020.

For this reason, at the end of 2021 there was evidence of at least 28,670 people on death row, with more than 80 percent of the total in only nine countries: Iraq, with more than 8,000; Pakistan, with more than 3,800; Nigeria, with more than 3,000; the United States with about 2,400; Bangladesh, with more than 1,800; Malaysia, with about 1,400; Vietnam, with more than 1,200; and Algeria and Sri Lanka with more than a thousand each.

The NGO has also emphasized that during 2021 the death penalty was used in several countries as an instrument of repression against minorities and protesters, with an alarming increase in the use of executions under the martial law imposed in Burma after the coup. of State on February 1, 2021.

Thus, it has stated that the Burmese Army transferred the authority to try civilians to military courts, which led to summary proceedings without the right to appeal that led to the arbitrary death sentence of 90 people, in several cases in absentia. , in what is seen as a campaign against protesters and journalists.

Amnesty has said that authorities in Egypt have continued to resort to torture and mass executions, often after unfair trials before security courts, while in Iran, death sentences were disproportionately handed down to members of ethnic minorities on vague charges such as "enmity with god".

In this sense, at least 19 percent of the executions in Iran corresponded to members of the Baloch minority, which represents barely five percent of the population of the Asian country. For his part, the young Saudi Mustafa al-Daruish, from the Shia minority, was executed in June after an unfair trial based on a confession obtained under torture.

"The minority of countries that maintain the death penalty are on notice: not only can we imagine a world without state-sanctioned killing, but it is within reach and we will continue to fight for it," Callamard said.

"We will continue to denounce the arbitrariness, discrimination and cruelty inherent in this punishment until no one is left under its shadow. It is time for the most cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment to be relegated to the history books", the secretary general has settled. of Amnesty International.