The number of death sentences passed around the world increased by more than a quarter during 2014 from the year before, much of this connected to crackdowns on terrorism or internal security in countries such as Egypt and Nigeria, according to an annual report by Amnesty International.

Over the course of past year the number of people confirmed to have been executed globally dropped by 22%, falling to 607 from 778 in 2013. However, as Amnesty notes, this figure excludes China, which keeps death penalty statistics secret, but is believed to execute thousands of people each year. Similarly, many executions are thought to have taken place in secret in North Korea.

Last year at least 2,466 death sentences were passed in 55 countries, says Amnesty, up from 1,925 in 2013. Much of this rise came from just two countries: Nigerian courts issued at least 659 death sentences, more than 500 higher than in 2013, while Egypt passed at least 509, a rise of more than 400 on 2013.

Many of the Egyptian sentences followed what the Amnesty report calls “mass trials that were grossly unfair”, mainly connected to a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood group. These included death sentences for 183 Muslim Brotherhood supporters over violence that erupted in 2013 in the aftermath of the army coup that ousted the then president, Mohamed Morsi.

The report notes that Egypt carried out 15 confirmed executions during 2014, significantly fewer than Iran (289), Saudi Arabia (90) and Iraq (61).

The large number of death sentences in Nigeria was also connected in part to security operations against the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. Among these was a mass military trial that sentenced 54 soldiers to death for mutiny after they refused to try to retake a town held by Boko Haram. However, no one was executed in the country in 2014.

In Pakistan, the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, ended a six-year moratorium on civilian executions in December after the militant attack on a school in Peshawar, in which 149 people died, among them 132 children. In the following fortnight seven people were put to death.

It is shameful that so many states around the world are essentially playing with people’s lives Salil Shetty, Amnesty International

While Amnesty does not put a figure on executions in China, it monitors reports and says the country continues to put to death more people than the rest of the world combined, including for non-violent crimes connected to drugs and embezzlement.



Amnesty says it is especially concerned by a crackdown against separatists and militants in the Muslim-majority north-western region of Xinjiang. Incidents here included the executions of three people at a mass public event in front of 7,000 people.

Methods of execution around the globe included hanging, shooting, beheading – used in Saudi Arabia – and lethal injection, as seen in the US, where 35 people were executed last year.

The report notes a gradual decline in the use of the death penalty – 20 years ago it was used by 37 countries, compared with 22 now. Amnesty argues there is no evidence execution is a better deterrent than prison, and that governments are misleading the public when they present it as a solution to crime or unrest.

Amnesty International’s secretary general, Salil Shetty, said: “In a year when abhorrent summary executions by armed groups were branded on the global consciousness like never before, it is appalling that governments are themselves resorting to more executions in a kneejerk reaction to combat terrorism and crime.

“It is shameful that so many states around the world are essentially playing with people’s lives – putting people to death for ‘terrorism’ or to quell internal instability on the ill-conceived premise of deterrence.”

