Amnesty International reports surge of Iranian executions

According to Amnesty International at least 388 people were executed in Iran in 2009 which is a record high for the Islamic Republic.

Amnesty International report adds that 112 of the hangings were carried out in the few weeks following the disputed June presidential elections when the country witnessed widespread street protests to the alleged fraud that secured the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa maintains: "The continuing surge in executions at a time when Iran has experienced the most widespread popular unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, combined with numerous statements by officials threatening protestors with execution, indicates that the Iranian authorities are again using the death penalty to try and cow the opposition and silence dissent.”

Amnesty International also reports that Iran and Saudi Arabia continue executing juvenile offenders.

In protest to China’s refusal to publicize the number of people it executed in 2009, Amnesty International has omitted China from its chart which according to the organization has executed over 1700 people in 2008.

With China omitted, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the US have respectively taken the first four spots on Amnesty International’s chart of the highest numbers of executions in 2009.

Amnesty International contends that thousands of state executions in China go unannounced every year.

On a higher note, Amnesty International announced that in 2009 more countries have abolished the death penalty and now the number of countries where the death penalty is abolished for all crimes stands at 95. In law and practice, Amnesty International considers 139 countries to have abolished the death penalty.