A total of 883 executions were recorded in the world in 2022, a record number since 2017, Amnesty International said in its annual report on the death penalty, published on Tuesday, denouncing a “wave of murder” in some countries.
Text: RFI / AFP
“The number of executions recorded in 2022 reached its highest level in five years, with the main countries responsible for this record in the Middle East and North Africa delivered to a wave of murders,” criticized the NGO for the defense of human rights. .
The report counts 883 people executed in 20 countries in 2022, an increase of 53% over the previous year.
“This drastic increase in executions, without taking into account the thousands that probably took place in China last year, is mainly due to countries in the Middle East and North Africa, where recorded numbers increased from 520 in 2021 to 825 in 2022,” says 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 number recorded by the NGO in 30 years), while Egypt executed 24 people, according to The report.
Saudi Arabia “was able to execute 81 prisoners in a single day,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
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Amnesty International stresses that the total number of executions in the world in 2022 was actually “considerably higher” than recorded, as “the secrecy surrounding the use of the death penalty continues to prevent accurate assessment in a number of countries, such as China, North Korea and Vietnam.
“Although the exact number of people executed in China is not known, this country is still clearly in the lead,” he adds.
However, the report highlights “a ray of hope”: six countries have fully or partially abolished the death penalty by 2022.
Kazakhstan, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, and the Central African Republic abolished it for all crimes, while Equatorial Guinea and Zambia abolished it only for common law crimes.
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