Amnesty: more death sentences, fewer executions

berlin - Amnesty International has in the world last year counted 1031 executions after a death sentence, about a third less than in 2015. But there have been significantly more pronounced death sentences, 3117 compared to 1998.

Nearly 90 percent of the executions took place in Iran (567), Saudi Arabia (154), Iraq (88th) and Pakistan (87). Not counting his executions in China, Amnesty International estimated at several thousand. The Chinese government regards the death penalty as a state secret.

For the first time since 2006 the United States are no longer in the top five countries with the most executions. Due to problems with obtaining the required chemicals executions declined in 2016 to twenty. But there are only thirty people were sentenced to death. This number was not so low since 1977. were felled more than three hundred death sentences in the mid nineties.

The increase in the number of death sentences pronounced in the world can be traced back to some African countries: Nigeria tripled this number, but also sentenced more people in Cameroon, Zambia and Somalia were killed.

Two countries abolished the death penalty in 2016: Nauru in the South Pacific and Benin in West Africa. The number of countries where the death penalty is totally abolished, this rose to 141.