Two countries stand out in Amnesty International's annual report on the death penalty: Iran and Saudi Arabia. In Iran, at least 576 people were executed in 2022, an increase of 83 percent compared to the previous year. At the same time, the number of confirmed executions in Saudi Arabia tripled, from 65 to 196. In March 2022, the Saudi Interior Ministry said 81 prisoners had been executed in one day.
These are two major reasons why the death penalty carried out increased globally for the second year in a row. Anna Johansson, Secretary General of Amnesty Sweden, described the development as "very serious".
"Between 2017 and 2020, it was rather the case that the number of executions in the world decreased every year, so it is difficult to say what has happened," she says.
"Silences critics"
In a number of countries, the death penalty has been used against people who demonstrate or exercise their freedom of expression. This includes Iran, which has executed people linked to the nationwide protests following the death of Mahsa Zhina Amini last year.
"It's particularly serious. Here, then, the death penalty is being abused to silence opponents and silence critics. This is not acceptable and a violation of international law," says Anna Johansson.
China stands out
Another trend is that the number of executions related to drug-related crimes has increased significantly.
At the same time, Anna Johansson points out that the statistics are somewhat misleading. The country that executes by far the most people is China, according to Amnesty. However, the Chinese regime regards information on the death penalty as a state secret and therefore there are no official statistics.
"It is almost impossible to confirm how many there are, but we believe that there are thousands of people," says Anna Johansson.
However, not everything is going in the wrong direction. Hear Anna Johansson in the video player above about the progress made last year.