Retaining the death penalty helps maintain stability in the country and prevent the spread of banditry, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he gave an interview to editor-in-chief of the Ekho Moskvy radio station Aleksei Venediktov in Minsk on 24 December 2019, BelTA learned.

An arsonist who set a fire in a KTV bar in south China's Guangdong Province that killed 18 people was executed on 24 December 2019, according to a local court.

As you know, the VIII Congress of "Hands off Cain-Spes contra spem" (in its new name) ended in the Opera prison in Milan on 21 December 2019 with the election of a new Council Board

Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor said on 23 December 2019 five people had been sentenced to death over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in October last year.

Alexandre Ossipovitch, 37, a citizen for the town of Bobrouïsk, was executed in Belarus on 17 December 2019, the newspaper Kamertsyïny Kourier stated, quoting the regional prosecutor Olga Ivanova.

A Pakistani court on 21 December 2019 sentenced a university professor to death for blasphemy under a law that critics say is often used to target minorities and liberal activists.

The VIII Congress of Hands Off Cain will be held in the Opera prison in Milan on 20 and 21 December.

Prison of Opera (MI), 20-21 December 2019

A Houthi rebel-controlled court in Yemen's capital Sanaa on 16 December 2019 sentenced four men to death for allegedly spying for Saudi Arabia, the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported.

Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was on 17 December 2019 sentenced to death for high treason by a special court. He is the first former military ruler to have been tried and convicted for treason.

Five death sentences were read out on 17 December 2019 to the five men convicted of the murder of businessman Dr Eddie Koury in September 2005.

Lusaka Judge Mwila Chitabo has sentenced to death a witch doctor from Paramount Chief Mpezeni area in Chipata for brutally murdering his client, Zambia Reports reported on 13 December 2019.