ISLAMABAD: The Amnesty International says 2021 saw a worrying rise in executions and death sentences as some of the world’s most prolific executioners returned to business as usual and courts were unshackled from Covid-19 restrictions.

In its annual review of the death penalty released on Tuesday, Amnesty estimates that at least 579 executions were known to have been carried out across 18 countries last year — a 20 per cent increase on the recorded total for 2020. Iran accounted for the biggest portion of this rise, executing at least 314 people (up from at least 246 in 2020), its highest execution total since 2017.

This was due in part to a marked increase in drug-related executions — a flagrant violation of international law which prohibits use of the death penalty for crimes other than those involving intentional killing.

Mean­while, Saudi Arabia more than doubled its number of executions, a grim trend that continued in 2022 with the execution of 81 people in a single day in March.

As Covid-19 restrictions that had previously delayed judicial processes were steadily lifted in many parts of the world, judges handed down at least 2,052 death sentences in 56 countries — a close to 40 per cent increase on 2020 — with big spikes seen in countries including Bangladesh (at least 181, from at least 113), India (144, from 77) and Pakistan (at least 129, from at least 49).

Recorded death sentences in India and Pakistan significantly increased.

For the second consecutive year, no executions were recorded in Pakistan. Amnesty International gathered reports relating to 129 new death sentences being imposed during the year, a significant increase on the total it recorded for 2020 (49).

However, the real number was likely to be higher. The increase was partly linked to the resumption of court proceedings, which had slowed down in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Of the total, 102 were imposed for murder; 18 for rape; seven for “blasphemy”, including on a woman; and two for drug-related offences. Anti-terrorism courts imposed 25 of the recorded sentences, and other special courts, including Model Criminal Trial Courts, special courts established in 2019 to deal with the backlog of criminal cases, 27.

Despite these setbacks, the total number of recorded executions in 2021 constitutes the second-lowest figure, after 2020, that Amnesty International has recorded since at least 2010.

As in previous years, the recorded global totals for death sentences and executions do not include the thousands of people that Amnesty International believes to have been sentenced to death and executed in China, as well as the extensive number of executions believed to have taken place in North Korea and Vietnam. Secretive state practices and restricted access to information for these three countries made it impossible to accurately monitor executions, while for several other countries, recorded totals must be regarded as minimum figures.

Iran maintains a mandatory death penalty for possession of certain types and quantities of drugs — with the number of executions recorded for drug-related offences rising more than five-fold to 132 in 2021 from 23 the previous year. The known number of women executed also rose from nine to 14, while the Iranian authorities continued their abhorrent assault on children’s rights by executing three people who were under the age of 18 at the time of the crime, contrary to their obligations under international law.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2022