2023-05-16 02:59:30
The number of executions in the world at the highest since 2017
Nearly 900 people were executed in 2022 in 20 countries, the highest level since 2017, criticizes Amnesty International in its annual report on the death penalty.
Image d’illustration.
AFP
“The number of executions recorded in 2022 has reached its highest level in five years, as the main countries behind this record, in the Middle East and North Africa, have engaged in a murder spree”, denounces Amnesty International. The human rights organization counted 883 people executed in 20 countries in 2022, an increase of 53% compared to the previous year.
“This skyrocketing number of executions, which does not take into account the thousands more that probably took place in China last year, is due above all to countries in the Middle East and North Africa, where the recorded figures have increased from 520 in 2021 to 825 in 2022”, notes Amnesty International.
The number of executions in Iran rose from 314 in 2021 to 576 in 2022, it tripled in Saudi Arabia from 65 to 196 (the highest recorded by Amnesty International in 30 years), while Egypt executed 24 people in 2022, the report says.
Secret
Saudi Arabia “went so far as to execute 81 prisoners in a single day,” notes Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International. She blames Iran, where “in a desperate attempt to put an end to the popular uprising, the authorities took the lives of people who had only exercised their right to demonstrate”.
Amnesty International points out that the total number of executions worldwide in 2022 was actually “significantly higher”, as “the secrecy surrounding the use of the death penalty still prevented it from being accurately assessed in several countries, such as the China, North Korea and Vietnam”. “Although the precise number of people executed in China is unknown, this country clearly remained at the top of the countries which executed the most”, adds Amnesty International.
The report, however, retains “a ray of hope”: six countries have abolished or partially abolished the death penalty in 2022. Kazakhstan, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic have abolished it for all crimes , while Equatorial Guinea and Zambia removed it only for ordinary crimes.
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