Global executions hit 25-year high

At least 1,634 people were put to death in 25 countries last year, the highest number of executions recorded by the London-based human rights group in more than a quarter century, excluding those carried out in China.

Amnesty believes that thousands more people are executed every year in China, but the government treats information about capital punishment as a state secret.

“Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have all put people to death at unprecedented levels, often after grossly unfair trials,” Shetty said.

[...] it noted that in almost every region, governments use executions as a tool to respond to real and perceived threats to state security and public safety, including terrorism-related offenses.

The rash of executions in Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia was in stark contrast to a long-term trend toward the abolition of the death penalty and de facto moratoriums on capital punishment in a growing number of countries.