Amnesty: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, Iran carry out 86% of state executions

Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Egypt are among the countries who carry out the highest number of executions around the world in 2019, a report by Amnesty International revealed yesterday.

The organisation’s 2019 global review of the death penalty states that Saudi Arabia executed a record number of 184 people in 2019.

Neighbouring Iraq nearly doubled the number of executions during the same period while in Egypt 32 death penalties were carried out.

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According to the report, Iran retained its position as the country with the second largest number of executions in the world after China, with a record 251 executions.

Amnesty said although the number of executions in China is estimated at thousands, the exact figure remains unknown since the country continues to consider such information “state secrets”.

Outside of China, Amnesty said the number of executions around the world decreased by five per cent in 2019 reaching 657 executions in 20 countries, compared to at least 690 executions recorded in 2018.

The report said this is the lowest number of executions recorded in at least a decade.

Amnesty International said that 86 per cent of the executions recorded occurred in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt.