Iran carried out more than half of all recorded executions in 2017, a new report from Amnesty International revealed. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq are responsible for carrying out 85 percent of all reported death sentences worldwide, the report said.
The figures show that the Middle East and North Africa accounted for 847 of 933 reported death sentences carried out worldwide in 2017.
This was despite an overall decrease of 1 percent in executions across the region against figures from 2016, the report said.
Figures for China, where thousands are thought to be executed every year, were not recorded.
The report also does not include figures for executions in Libya and Syria, where militant groups are thought to be responsible for thousands of extra-judicial killings.
Lucy Wake, Amnesty International UK's government and political relations manager, told MEE: "Aside from China, the bulk of the world’s executions are taking place in the Middle East, which sets an important challenge for the UK’s foreign policy towards the region.
“With countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain all appearing in this gruesome tally of Middle Eastern states executing prisoners - many after unfair trials - the UK needs to ensure that abolition of the death penalty is a key part of its Middle East foreign goals.
“As well as condemning executions, we need to see the UK speaking out more often and more critically when it comes to things like torture and unfair trials in Saudi Arabia, especially when these abuses are leading to scores of people being beheaded in public squares every year.”
The figures show that Iran executed at least 507 people, accounting for 60 percent of all confirmed executions in the region.
“Basic fair trial guarantees” were absent in the country, and death penalty cases often relied on “confessions” extracted under torture, the report said.
More than 200 executions took place in Iran for drug trafficking, despite an amendment to the country's drugs law - which passed last November - to increase the threshold for mandatory death sentences for drug offences.
A further 59 executions were carried out for drug-related offences across the region, the report added.
Saudi Arabia executed 146 people in 2017, a modest decrease from the 2016 figure, according to the rights group. Seventy-eight of the executions were for murder, four for terrorism-related acts and 59 were for drug-related offences.
The group said that many defendants were sentenced to death “after unfair trials by courts that convicted them without adequately investigating allegations of coerced 'confessions,' including confessions obtained under torture”.
The bulk of the executions were carried out after Mohammed Bin Salman was appointed crown prince in July, figures from rights group Reprieve suggest.
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