13 April 2016

Demand for Death Penalty is Surging

Death Penalty
The world has finally seen the benefit of imposing capital punishments on scumbags who commits heinous and deplorable crimes that the society is made better off without them.

Last year, the total number of known executions worldwide rose by more than half to 1,634, the highest figure recorded since 1989, Amnesty International said last 6 April as Pakistan sent three more men to the gallows.

The surge was largely fuelled by Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the London-based human rights organization said in its annual report on death sentences and executions worldwide.

The 1,634 figure does not include China, which is thought to have killed thousands of its own citizens.

Death penalty data is "treated as a state secret" by Beijing, Amnesty said, as it is by Vietnam and Belarus.

Recorded executions were up by 54 percent on 2014's figure of 1,061.

Just three countries -- Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia -- were responsible for 89 percent of the total of 1,634.

Pakistan lifted a six-year moratorium on the death penalty following a school massacre by Taliban insurgents in December 2014.

Initially it brought back hanging just for terrorist killings but later extended it to all capital crimes.

It hanged three convicted murderers including a pair of brothers last 6 April, a senior prisons official told AFP.

"Over the past year, Pakistan has vaulted to the number three spot for recorded state executions in the world -- a shameful position no one should aspire to," Champa Patel, director of Amnesty's South Asia office, told AFP, adding the majority were not convicted of terror offences.

Pakistan executed 326 people in 2015 while Saudi Arabia put 158 people to death.

Iran's execution of at least 977 people is at odds with its opening up to the West after striking a deal with world powers last year on its nuclear ambitions, Amnesty said.

"Western countries are starting to build commercial ties and trade missions," said James Lynch, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa deputy director.