Police officers in a convoy escort at least one of the five suspects in the execution-style killing of a Paraguayan anti-drug prosecutor during his honeymoon, to the airport in Medellin, Colombia, on June 3, 2022. PHOTO/AFP

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Death penalty around the world

What you need to know:

  • Amnesty said at least 2,052 death sentences were handed out around the world in 2021, an increase of 39 percent over the previous year.

Myanmar's junta said Friday it would carry out its first executions since 1990 by hanging four people, including a former lawmaker from the party of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a rights activist.

Myanmar is one of several dozen countries, including the United States, China, Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia that continue to put prisoners to death, using methods including beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection and shooting. 

In a recent report, Amnesty International noted an "alarming" increase in the recourse to the death penalty in Myanmar, which it attributed to cases of civilians being transferred to military or special tribunals that offer no right of appeal.

Generally trending downwards

At least 579 people were put to death in eighteen countries in 2021, 96 more than in the previous year, the rights group said.

The uptick follows six years of marked decline in the number of executions.

"Although the global trend remains unmistakably in favour of abolition, the recorded increases in 2021 should act as a warning that it is not yet time to let off pressure," Amnesty wrote in the May 24 report.

Three countries accounted for 80 percent of all reported executions in 2021: Iran, with 314 (up 28 percent), Egypt with 83, and Saudi Arabia with 65 (an increase of 240 percent).

Amnesty's figures do not include executions believed to have been carried out in China, believed to be the world's biggest executioner, as well as North Korea and Vietnam. The three countries keep data on executions secret.

Abolished in 108 countries

A total of 108 countries had formally abolished the death penalty for all crimes by the end of 2021, according to Amnesty, up from 16 countries in 1977.

More than two-thirds are abolitionist in law or practice, with Kazakhstan, Malawi and Sierra Leone the latest nations to ban capital punishment.

United States 

Executions fell 35 percent in the US in 2021, with 11 people put to death in six jurisdictions.

President Joe Biden's administration imposed a moratorium on all federal executions in July 2021 following a wave of controversial executions under former president Donald Trump.

Virginia became the 23rd American state to abolish the death penalty in 2021, the first state from the old Confederate south to do so. 

Three other states -- California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania -- have a moratorium on the death penalty, meaning they do not apply it although it remains on the statute books.

Saudi Arabia 

Saudi Arabia put 81 people to death in a single day in March this year, more than the 69 executed in all of 2021 and a huge leap from 2020 when 27 people were put to death.

Iran 

The 314 people executed in Iran was the highest since 2017 and appears to mainly concern people convicted of drug-related offences, Amnesty said.

Egypt 

Egypt executed 22 percent fewer people in 2021 compared to 2020, but eight women were among the 83 people put to death.

Death sentences 

Amnesty said at least 2,052 death sentences were handed out around the world in 2021, an increase of 39 percent over the previous year, reversing a nearly equivalent drop in 2020 when justice systems around the world were snarled by the Covid-19 pandemic.