” “All over the world, over 20,000 prisoners are now locked up in death rows, waiting to be executed. In 2005, at least 2,148 executions and 5,186 death sentences were carried out in 53 countries. These statistics have been published today by Amnesty International. 94% of executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the USA. In China, which alone totals 80% of executions, approximately 1,770 executions seem to have been carried out, “but the actual number could be much higher”, about 8,000 a year. Here, one can be sentenced to death for 68 crimes, including drug pushing, tax fraud, embezzlement. In Iran, in 2005 at least 94 prisoners were executed, including 8 minors. In Saudi Arabia at least 86 sentences were executed. 60 executions were recorded in the US, over 1,000 since 1976. These are "really alarming" figures, comments Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty international: “Death penalty is the ultimate, irreversible denial of human rights, since it is against the essence of fundamental rights. It is often applied in a discriminating way, following some unfair trial or for political reasons. When it is the fruit of some injustice, it can be a lethal mistake”. The good news is that the trend for abolition keeps growing: over the last 20 years, the number of States that execute death sentences has been halved, and in 2005 it decreased for the fourth year in a row. Last year, it was abolished in Mexico and Liberia as well. In 1977, only 16 countries had abolished death penalty for all crimes. At the end of 2005, their number had risen to 86.” “
