Executioners without borders

The number of mortal executions in the world has doubled the authoritative international human rights organization, Amnesty International, a report on the application of the death penalty in 2008. As follows from the document, in the world there are fewer countries where death sentences are executed, but the number of executions themselves increased.

In 2008, 8,864 people were sentenced to the highest state of the world, 2390 in 25 countries were executed. Compared to 2007, the number of sentences has almost doubled (last year this indicator was 1252 executions).

The absolute leader in the number of executions held last year became China - 1718. Human rights activists pay attention that the figure cannot be considered accurate - information about this in the PRC is secret. It is impossible to get accurate information. Together with China, the first five includes Iran (346 executions), Saudi Arabia (102), the USA (37) and Pakistan (36) - in total, these countries account for 93% of all executions of the world.

According to Amnesty International, most often sentenced to the highest degree of punishment is chopped off, killed with electric shock or deadly injection, hung or throw stones (this type of execution is traditionally used in Islamic countries). In China, both execution and deadly injections are used. We add that, according to the British newspaper The Independent , the so-called “Dushegubka buses” are already being commissioned in the PRC. These vehicles are equipped to make higher measures through a deadly injection. Such buses, according to the publication, will run in hard -to -reach Chinese provinces and small settlements and will help to significantly reduce the cost of the death penalty.

According to human rights activists, the high cost of the death penalty is one of the reasons for the refusal of its use. To date, 138 countries have adopted the law on the abolition of the death penalty, retain the death penalty of 59 countries, and it is applied at 25. In Russia, a ten -year -old moratorium is in force in Russia.

After in 2008, Uzbekistan legally prohibited death sentences by the only country that retained the penalty as the highest measure of punishment in the space of Europe and Central Asia, Belarus became. The statistics on the amount of executions in Belarus are not available, but, according to Amnesty International, since 1991, about 400 people could be executed.

The United States is the only country on both American continents, which, according to human rights activists, continues to apply executions "persistently." In 2008, 37 people were executed in the United States, most (18 people) in Texas. Four suicide bombers were released after the court recognized their innocence.

Last year has become the lowest in the United States since 1995. In Japan, on the contrary, last year the largest number of deaths since 1975 was recorded - 15.

Noting the increase in the number of deaths, human rights activists note that in 2008, in addition to Uzbekistan, Argentina refused to punish the highest punishment. Algeria, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Somalia, Mali and that expressed their desire for its cancellation.

03/24/2009 / Polina Khimshiashvili, the material was published in the newspaper No. 51 of 03.25.2009.