Executions on the rise: Amnesty

At least 676 people were executed in 20 countries in 2011, Amnesty International reported in their annual review of capital punishment published on Tuesday. The previous year 527 people were executed in 23 countries.

The statistics are a sign of progress, according to Salil Shetty, Amnesty's secretary general. When Amnesty was launched in 1961 only nine countries had abolished the death penalty, he said, whereas last year only 20 countries carried out executions.

"It's a very important success story," Shetty told Reuters, adding that, even so, "a few countries continue to practice it in large numbers."

China leads the world in executions, which continue to number in the thousands, the human rights activists say. Amnesty stopped including China in its yearly count of executions in 2009. China considers the figures a state secret.

In second place came Iran, where at least 360 people were executed last year, followed by Saudi Arabia (at least 82), Iraq (at least 68), the United States (at 43) and Yemen (41).

The number of people executed in the Middle East increased by 50 percent in 2011. Around 2,000 death sentences were pronounced around the world, and 18,750 people waited on death row for their sentences to be carried out.

Both Iran and Saudi Arabia executed minors, Amnesty said. As in the past, death sentences were in some cases pronounced following unfair trials that failed to meet international standards. People were condemned to death on the basis of testimony acquired through torture in Belarus, China, Iran, Iraq and North Korea, Amnesty said.

Belarus is the only country in Europe which continues to carry out the death penalty.

ncy/ccp (Reuters, AP, dapd)