Watchdog

Global use of the death penalty has decreased for the fourth consecutive year and fallen to its lowest level in a decade, according to a new report by Amnesty International.

The number of recorded executions fell to 657 worldwide, 33 fewer than in 2018, with all carried out in just 20 countries, according to the report published on April 21.

"The death penalty is an abhorrent and inhuman punishment, and there is no credible evidence that it deters crime more than prison terms," said Clare Algar, Amnesty International's senior director for research, advocacy, and policy. "A large majority of countries recognize this and it's encouraging to see that executions continue to fall worldwide."

However, the human rights watchdog said a lack of transparency in reporting executions meant the real number could be much higher.

The figures did not include the use of the death penalty in China, for example, by far the world's most prolific executioner. The number of people executed there is classified but is believed to be in the thousands.

Iran, with at least 251 executions; Saudi Arabia, with 184; Iraq, with at least 100; and Egypt, with at least 32, rounded out the world's top-five countries who carry out the most executions, according to the report.

Algar singled out a number of countries for their lack of transparency in using the death penalty.

"Executions are taking place in secret all over the world," Algar said. "In countries from Belarus to Botswana and Iran to Japan, executions were being carried out without any advance notice to the families, lawyers, or in some cases the individuals themselves."

Absence Of Openness

China, North Korea, and Vietnam continued "to hide the full extent of their use of the death penalty by restricting access to death penalty information,” Algar said.

She suggested that the absence of openness was telling.

"Even countries that are the strongest proponents of the death penalty struggle to justify its use, and opt for secrecy," Algar said. "Many of them take pains to hide how they use the death penalty, knowing it will not stand up to international scrutiny."

One such country is Iran, where the use of the death penalty fell to a historic low, but which Amnesty admonished for the secret execution of two boys who were arrested and convicted at the age of 15 "on multiple rape charges following an unfair trial."

The two were not aware that they had been sentenced to death prior to their executions, and their "bodies bore lash marks, indicating they had been whipped before their deaths."

The number of people executed in Iran fell by at least two from the previous year, when some 253 cases of the death penalty were recorded. However, four of those killed were below 18, according to the rights watchdog.

Amnesty attributed the fall in the overall number of executions in part to "significant reductions" in the number of confirmed executions in states such as Egypt, Japan, and Singapore that it said are traditionally strong adherents of the death penalty.

Kazakhstan, Russia, and Tajikistan were among the countries that continued to respect official moratoriums on executions, according to the report. And no executions were carried out in Afghanistan for the first time since 2010.

A "significant downward trend" was also reported in Pakistan, where 14 executions were carried out for the second year in a row. That followed a spike in the use of the death penalty in 2015.

Of those countries that defied the global trend away from capital punishment, Saudi Arabia, with 184 executions, was criticized for its increased use of the death penalty, "including as a weapon against political dissidents." It marked the highest number of executions on record in the Middle Eastern country.

The report said that the number of executions nearly doubled in one year in Iraq, where the death penalty was employed at least 100 times in 2019. The rise was attributed largely to the punishment of individuals accused of being part of the Islamic State extremist group.

The United States continued its 11-year run as the only country to carry out executions in the Americas region, with 22, but recorded fewer executions and death sentences.

Amnesty said the year 2019 in the United States "was dominated by significant progress towards its abolition at the state level and yet the pursuit of executions by federal authorities."

The U.S. ambassador to Russia has accused a Moscow court of making a "mockery of justice" after he was denied admission to a closed-door hearing in the trial of Paul Whelan, a U.S. citizen accused by Russia of espionage.

"It's a fundamental human right that anyone accused of a crime is presumed innocent and is tried in a fair, impartial, and public hearing," Ambassador John Sullivan said in a letter posted on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on April 20.

"The fact that it is a closed hearing, that it is a secret trial – Paul hasn’t seen the evidence against him – it makes a mockery of justice," Sullivan added.

The ambassador also said that it was "intolerable" and "unacceptable" that the Russian government had refused to allow Whelan medical treatment for "serious medical issues."

The comments came before one of Whelan's defense lawyers said that the Moscow City Court had denied a request for his client to be treated by a U.S. doctor.

"It was determined that Russian doctors have provided him with all necessary qualified aid," attorney Vladimir Zherebenkov told Interfax.

Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who also holds Canadian, Irish, and British citizenship, was charged with spying after security agents arrested him in a December 2018 sting operation, claiming that a flash drive they seized contained state secrets.

Whelan denies the charges and has alleged that he has been ill-treated by guards and that his case is political in nature.

With reporting by Interfax and Reuters