Amnesty: Executions highest in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia in 2017

Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia have topped the list of countries carrying out the death penalty in the Middle East and North Africa in 2017, Amnesty International said in a new report issued yesterday.

According to rights group, the three countries have carried out 92 per cent of executions in the region where 507 people were executed in Iran, 60 per cent of all confirmed executions in the region, followed by Saudi Arabia which executed 146 people or 17 per cent of all confirmed executions and Iraq which executed 125 people.

Meanwhile, Egypt topped the list with the number of death sentences issued in 2017 with 402. However, the report notes that Cairo did not carry out a majority of the sentences.

According to the report, Egypt executed 35 people, Jordan executed 15 people, Kuwait seven people, Palestine six people, Bahrain three people, Yemen two people, and the UAE one person. The report did not elaborate on the nature of the crimes committed by those executed.

Read: On the savage executions in Egypt

The report said the number of death sentences in the region declined from 764 in 2016 to 619 in 2017.

Amnesty International said it “believes that hundreds of death sentences were issued in Iran but it has not been able to confirm the credibility of these figures.”

The report said the number of executions in Syria and Libya were “unconfirmed”.