CHINA: The death penalty ended more lives in 2004 than at any time in the last 25 years, with China accounting for most cases and China and Iran still executing children, Amnesty International said yesterday.
The number of death sentences passed last year also hit its highest in almost 10 years, the human rights organisation said.
"This is an alarming rise in executions, and the figures uncovered from China are genuinely frightening," Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said. The actual number could be much higher, as many countries do not give official figures.
"These executions are believed to be only the tip of the iceberg, with many countries continuing to execute people in secret," Ms Allen said.
In Beijing yesterday foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang was asked about the Amnesty report. Qin had no direct comment, saying only that China was "a country ruled by law and rules in accordance with the law".
Five countries - Bhutan, Greece, Samoa, Senegal and Turkey - abolished the death penalty last year, taking the total of abolitionists to 120, Amnesty said.
At least 3,797 people were executed in 2004, the charity said in its report, The Death Penalty Worldwide: Developments in 2004. That was the second-highest figure the organisation has recorded since its monitoring began 25 years ago. In 1996, 4,272 were executed, Amnesty said.
China accounted for at least 3,400 executions last year, about nine out of 10 cases. Iran was second on the list, executing at least 159. Three were children, one a 16-year-old girl publicly hanged for "acts incompatible with chastity", the charity said.
China and Iran have both ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which prohibits the death penalty for crimes committed by juveniles.
Last month the United States - the only country apart from Somalia not to ratify the treaty - abolished the death penalty for juveniles. The US executed 59 people last year, while Vietnam executed at least 64. - (Reuters)