Four Middle Eastern countries have made ‘ruthless’ use of the death penalty in 2020

Four Middle Eastern countries, led by Iran, They made a ‘Merciless and frightening’ application of the death penalty in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, dominating the world record of executions, according to a report by Amnesty International published this Wednesday.

London-based human rights group recorded 483 executions in 18 countries in 2020, 26% less than 657 in 2019 and the lowest number recorded in the last decade.

The Amnesty tally does not include China, which the organization says remains the “world’s first executioner,” with thousands of deaths per year, but whose statistics are classified as “state secrets.”

On the American continent, United States It was once again the only country to carry out executions, although its number in 2020 fell from the previous year, from 22 to 17.

“The year 2020 saw a further decline in the use of the death penalty around the world, and while the COVID-19 pandemic has helped reduce the number of executions and death sentences, it has also exacerbated the cruelty inherent in the death penalty, ”says the Amnesty report.

Excluding China, 88% of recorded executions took place in four countries: Iran, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, according to the same source.

“Throughout 2020, countries in the Middle East and North Africa have shown ruthless and frightening persistence in implementing plans to execute people, even in a year when most of the world was focused on protecting people’s lives from a deadly virusSaid Heba Morayef, regional director of Amnesty International.

The number of executions recorded in the Middle East fell by 25%, due to the 85% drop in executions in Saudi Arabia and the reduction in executions by more than half in Iraq.

However, the report notes “a significant rebound” in executions in Egypt, which more than tripled from 32 in 2019 to 107 in 2020.

Iran carried out at least 246 executions, remaining the first country in the region in number of death sentences and the second in the world after China..

Amnesty says that in Iran “the death penalty is increasingly used as a weapon of political repression against dissidents, protesters and members of ethnic minority groups”.

Some of those executed during the year were members of Iran’s Kurdish and Baloch minorities, according to the NGO.

In addition, Iran continued to apply the death penalty to people under 18 at the time of the commission of the crime, in defiance of international law, he said, citing three cases.

(With information from AFP)

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