AMNESTY: 714 EXECUTIONS IN 2009, EXCLUDING CHINA

March 29, 2010: in 2009, at least 714 people were put to death in 18 countries and 2001 were sentenced to death in 56 countries, according to the latest report by Amnesty International on capital punishment. However this total excludes data for China: for the first time Amnesty wanted to challenge the absence of transparency in Beijing, deciding not to publish the estimate it had collated. Amnesty also launched an appeal to the Chinese authorities to make public data on the thousands of sentences and executions which probably took place last year, but are kept a state secret. 
“Chinese authorities confirmed that executions are decreasing. If this is true, why not tell the world how many people were put to death?” Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International’s interim General Secretary, asked. 
Other than China, the countries with the most executions were again Iran (at least 338), Iraq (at least 120), Saudi Arabia (at least 69) and the United States (52, an increase on 2008 when there were 37). Nevertheless, the world trend towards abolition continued: the number of countries that completely abolished the death penalty increased to 95, thanks to Burundi and Togo. And for the first time, there were no executions in Europe for 12 months. Belarus is the only European country that still employs capital punishment. (Sources: ANSA, 29/03/2010)