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| Execution in Kuwait, April 2013 |
Executions have resumed in Kuwait and Egypt while Lebanon and Qatar are now de
facto among abolitionists - countries in which no court has sentenced anyone to
death for at least a decade - along with Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia,
according to the 2014 report on the death penalty worldwide presented Friday in
Rome by Italian NGO "Nessuno Tocchi Caino" (May nobody touch Cain).
According to the report, the countries with the highest rate of executions in
2013 and the first 6 months of 2014 were China - where at least 3,000 of the
world's reported 4,106 executions were carried out - followed by Iran (687),
Iraq (172) and Saudi Arabia (78).
Palestine, Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Syria and Yemen also
maintained the death penalty. Algeria is carrying out a moratorium on
executions.
Among the 8 countries which resumed executions over 2013 or in the first
semester of this year were the United Arab Emirates (1), Egypt (at least 8 in
2014) and Kuwait (5).
Most death penalties were handed down in connection with terrorism charges:
hundreds of executions are carried out in the Arab world and, more in general,
in Muslim countries, the NGO said. Often executions vie to eliminate regime
opponents. There were at least 233 such executions across 6 Muslim countries
last year, including Iran (33) and Iraq (168). Overall, the NGO pointed out
that the situation has sensibly declined in these 2 countries. Last year and in
the first 6 months of 2014, though the "moderate" Rohani took power, hundreds
of executions were carried out in Iran as well as in Iraq, which "chose to
adopt the Iranian model", said the organization's leader, Sergio D'Elia.
"Such a high number of executions had not been registered" since Saddam Hussein
was in power, he continued. "The executions were necessary, according to Iraqi
authorities, to counter political violence and terrorism". Many were also
executed on drug-related charges in Egypt, the UAE, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Syria,
Sudan, South Sudan and Yemen.
Concern is high over the situation in Egypt, D'Elia told ANSAmed, where the
death penalty has resumed this year after a moratorium which lasted a number of
years. "No executions had been carried out since 2011", recalled D'Elia. Mass
death sentences against hundreds of members of the Muslim Brotherhood are
worrying the international community. Minors are also increasingly being
sentenced to death.
A reported 13 people aged under 18 were executed in 3 countries: at least 9 in
Iran, 3 in Saudi Arabia and 1 in Yemen. There is no data on Libya and Syria,
the report noted.
Source: Reuters, July 19, 2014
