Capital punishment up by 54% in 2015, Pakistan tops list: Amnesty International

The numbers of death penalty has risen over an alarming 54 per cent in 2015-16. A total of 1,634 people were executed by 25 countries last year, an Amnesty International (AI) report said.

The report - which will be unveiled later today - claims that the 2015-16 period records the highest number of capital punishment cases in a single year since 1989. Most of the executions took place in Pakistan where the government executed 326 people in the year gone by, the AI report said.

With the data for capital punishment cases in China not available yet, Pakistan tops the list of countries. North Africa and West Asia recorded a 26 per cent rise in death executions. Iran saw 82 per cent of cases in the region while Saudi Arabia recorded 76 per cent in comparison to data of 2014.

Meanwhile, the US remained the only country in the North America to have awarded executions. On other hand, four more countries abolished the capital punishment for any crime in 2015, taking total number of such countries to 102.