By Sanjay Suri
LONDON, Apr 5 2005 (IPS)

Nine out of ten government executions take place in China, according to statistics in an Amnesty International report released Tuesday.

Amnesty put the known number of executions last year at 3,797 in 25 countries. China, held up as the world’s most booming economy, appears as also the most executing country.

”China executed at least 3,400 people, but sources inside the country have estimated the number to be near 10,000,” the Amnesty report says. Going just by the known number put forward by Amnesty, it would seem that nine out of ten executions take place in China. But the incidence could be even higher.

”The figures released today (of executions around the world) are sadly only the tip of the iceberg,” the Amnesty report says. The real number is likely to be thousands more.

”The true picture is hard to uncover as many countries continue to execute people secretly – contravening United Nations standards calling for disclosure of information on capital punishment,” Amnesty said.

Besides, Amnesty says that at least 7,395 others were sentenced to death in 64 countries last year. Many of these may have been executed. And the number of those sentenced too could be far higher than this.

A few countries accounted for most executions, but the numbers executed in the rest are small compared to China. Iran executed at least 159, and Vietnam at least 64, the Amnesty report says. There were 59 executions in the United States, down from 65 in 2003.

Despite the high number of executions, Amnesty reported also a worldwide trend towards abolition of the death sentence. Five countries abolished the death penalty for all crimes in 2004 – Bhutan, Greece, Samoa, Senegal and Turkey. So far 120 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, Amnesty said.

Several countries, while retaining the death penalty in law, observed moratoria on executions, Amnesty said. A law on ”the suspension of the application of the death penalty” was signed into force in July in Tajikistan, and in January this year President Aksar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan announced that a moratorium on executions, which had been in place since 1998, would be extended for another year.

Other countries with moratoria on executions included Malawi and South Korea.

Amnesty International said ”these are important advances that the (UN) Commission should welcome and encourage.”

But despite the trend towards abolition, the new figures ”highlight the ongoing need for concerted action by the international community to consign the death penalty to history,” Amnesty said.

Amnesty expressed concern that the vast majority of those executed did not have fair trials. Many were convicted on the basis of ”evidence extracted under torture,” it said.

Amnesty picked up the case of prisoner Ryan Matthews in the United States to show that many who face execution, or who have been executed, could be innocent.

In 2004, Ryan Matthews became the 115th prisoner in the United States since 1973 to be released from death row on grounds of innocence, Amnesty said. He had been sentenced to death in Louisiana in 1999 for a murder committed when he was 17 years old.

His death sentence was overturned in April 2004 after an appeal judge found that the prosecution had suppressed evidence at the trial, and on the basis of DNA evidence that pointed to another person as being the murderer.

Amnesty expressed concern that child offenders continued to be executed in some countries. ”Iran executed at least three child offenders in 2004, violating its obligations as party to international treaties which preclude the practice,” Amnesty said, adding that another child offender was executed in Iran in January this year.

”China executed a young man despite concerns that he may have been a juvenile when he committed a capital crime,” the Amnesty report said. ”His execution was carried out while his lawyer and family were still petitioning the Supreme People’s Court to review his case.

Amnesty called on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights meeting in Geneva to affirm clearly ”that the imposition of the death penalty on those aged under 18 at the time of the commission of the offence is contrary to customary international law.”

Amnesty International also called on the Commission to condemn the death penalty as a violation of fundamental human rights.

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