Rights group records 54% uptick in executions worldwide

Amnesty International reports that there was a dramatic 54 percent increase in executions globally in 2015, with Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia responsible for nearly 90 percent of the killings.

The human rights organization says that the figure of at least 1,634 people executed last year — up from 1,061 in 2014 — does not include executions in China where data on the death penalty is considered a state secret.

Amnesty International’s Secretary General Salil Shetty tells several reporters on Tuesday that for China “our estimate is that they execute as much as the rest of the world.”

He says China is currently reviewing crimes punishable by the death penalty so there is “a slim ray of hope” that the number of executions may be reduced.

On the upside, Shetty says, four countries abolished the death penalty for all crimes in 2015 — Republic of Congo, Fiji, Madagascar and Surinam — bringing the global total of countries now banning executions to 102.

— AP