Yesterday, Amnesty International published its yearly report on the death penalty. If we don't include the executions in China, 2011 counts 676 people executed, that is almost 150 more than in 2010 (527):
It is still less than in 2009, when 719 people were put to death by law, but all these numbers still exclude the (assumed) thousands of executions in China or North Korea, where all information about capital punishment is kept a national secret.
The number is highly increased since last year (by 28%), despite the fact that there are now 'only' twenty countries that have actually executed somebody (whereas 23 in 2010) and three more countries that have actually erased the possibility of death penalty from their national law: Gabon, Latvia and Mongolia earlier this year (source).
For Japan, 2010 was the first time in 19 years that no execution took place.
More:
- Death Penalty Report 2011 (Amnesty International)
- Death Sentences and Executions 2011 (Amnesty International)
- Full Report 2011
- China must end secrecy surrounding sentences and executions (Amnesty International)
- 'Alarming' surge in executions, says Amnesty (BBC)
- Amnesty International report finds increase in executions in 2011 (PRI)
- 676 mensen werden vorig jaar geëxecuteerd (VRT, in Dutch) + video
- Verontrustend veel executies in weinige landen die doodstraf nog uitvoeren (DeWereldMorgen.be)
- Use of capital punishment by country (Wikipedia)
- Execution list of the US in 2011 (DeathPenalty.org)
- Death Penalty Report 2010
- Belgium formally abolished capital punishment as late as 1996
The Guardian made an animation about the Iranian lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei and the case of the young Behnoud Shojaee who got hanged in 2006, for a fact committed when he was only 17.
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