Japan, one of the few developed countries to still impose capital punishment sentenced to death a man found guilty of carrying out an arson attack that killed 36 people at an anime studio in 2019.
The sentence comes as a convicted murderer in the United States was executed this week using nitrogen gas, a method likened by the United Nations to “torture”.
While the number of known executions rose sharply in 2022, the last year for which global statistics are available, the number of countries that put people to death continues to fall.
Here are some key figures:
In 2022, the number of known executions jumped by 53%, rising to 883 from 579 in 2021, according to a report from Amnesty International in May 2023.
The figure was the highest recorded globally since 2017 (993).
Three countries accounted for 90% of all reported executions in 2022: Iran, with 576 (up 83%), Saudi Arabia with 196 (tripling in number from 2021), and Egypt with 24 (down by 71%).
Amnesty’s figures do not include executions in China, believed to be the world’s top executioner, as well as North Korea and Vietnam. The three countries keep their data secret.
A total of 112 countries had formally abolished the death penalty for all crimes by the end of 2022, with Kazakhstan, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic the most recent to join the club.
“Without doubt, the world continued to move away from the death penalty.
“Only a minority of countries that are increasingly becoming isolated actively used the punishment,” Amnesty wrote.
There were 24 executions in the United States in 2023, compared to 18 in 2022.
Texas carried out the most executions – eight – with Florida, which resumed executions after a lengthy pause, second with six.
Virginia became the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty in 2021, the first southern state from the former Confederacy to do so.
The governors of six other states, namely Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, have put a hold on its use.
Official figures show executions tripled in Saudi Arabia in comparison with 2021, from 65 to 196.
It is the highest number Amnesty recorded in the country in 30 years.
This was mainly due to the increase in recorded executions for terrorism-related offences and the resumption of executions for drug-related offences.
A moratorium on executions for drug-related offences, which the Saudi Human Rights Commission had said was put in place in 2020, ended in 2022.
The 576 people executed in Iran in 2022 were mainly those convicted of murder and drug-related offences, Amnesty said.
Of the 13 women among the 883 people known to have been executed in 2022, 12 were in Iran. The Islamic republic was rocked by women-led protests in late 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini. The protests came after her arrest by the morality police for alleged infringements of the country’s strict female dress code. Iran has executed nine people over the protests.
Meanwhile in Egypt, 71% fewer people were executed in 2022 compared to 2021.However, known death sentences in the country rose by 51%.
Amnesty said at least 2,016 death sentences were handed out around the world in 2022.
This was a slight decrease over the previous year, which recorded 2,052 death sentences. — AFP
