LATEST: Executions, led by Iran, reach highest level in 44 years: Amnesty International
Global Update:
Global attention remains focused on this evolving story as officials and analysts assess the broader implications.
Largely driven by Iran but with increases in other Middle Eastern countries and the United States, global executions reached their highest record in 44 years, according to the most recent report by Amnesty International (AI). In total, the human rights organization counted 2,707 deaths from capital punishment in 2025, 78% more than the previous year and an unprecedented figure in its records since 1981. These actions were carried out, however, in only 17 countries, including China, which, according to AI, “continued to be the country with the most executions in the world”, but which does not disclose its data because it considers it a state secret. The same occurs in the cases of Iraq, North Korea and Vietnam. Excluding the unknown numbers of the Asian giant but which, according to Amnesty, are counted in “thousands”, Iran led the sad ‘ranking’ of executions in 2025, with 2,159, which represents more than double that of 2024 and almost 80% of the global total. To display this content from X (Twitter), you must allow audience measurement and advertising cookies. Accept Manage my options AI’s count considerably exceeds the at least 1,639 executions reported in a joint report by the NGOs Iran Human Rights (IHR, based in Norway) and Together Against Death Penalty (EPCM, based in Paris), whose figure was the highest since 1989. Although in that document, only 57 were convicted on security-related charges, those two entities, like Amnesty, have pointed out that Iran is intensifying the use of the death penalty in 2026, following the January protests and the war launched by Israel and the United States, with executions on charges related to demonstrations and membership in banned groups. “From China, Iran and North Korea, through Saudi Arabia and Yemen, to Kuwait, Singapore and the United States, this shameful minority is using the death penalty as a weapon to instill fear, stifle dissent and show the force that state institutions have on disadvantaged people and marginalized communities,” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard denounced in a statement. The “war on drugs” drives the use of capital punishment Behind China and Iran, Saudi Arabia raised the number of executions in 2025 to 356, surpassing its own record from 2024 (345), with sentences applied mainly to drug-related crimes. “Saudi Arabian authorities continued to carry out executions at an alarming rate, in many cases with complete disregard for the restrictions on the use of this penalty established by international human rights law and standards,” AI said. In this April 1, 2010 file photo, activists from a civil organization reenact an execution scene in front of the Saudi Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, to protest the possible beheading of a Lebanese man accused of witchcraft in Saudi Arabia. © Bilal Hussein / File photo, AP For its part, Kuwait almost tripled its deaths from death sentences (from 6 to 17), while they almost doubled in Egypt (from 13 to 23), the United States (from 25 to 47) and Singapore (from 9 to 17). According to Amnesty International, the increase goes hand in hand with the “escalation of highly punitive approaches” in the so-called “war on drugs”, given that almost half of all executions (1,257) were for crimes related to drug trafficking, distributed among China, Iran (998), Saudi Arabia (240), Singapore (15) and Kuwait (2). Furthermore, the report highlights, in Kuwait, Algeria and Maldives (the latter two did not register cases of executions in 2025) they endorsed laws so that the capital punishment can be applied in crimes linked to drugs. Florida triggers the execution rate in the United States The United States is the only country on the American continent that, for the seventeenth consecutive year, carries out executions in its territory, with 47 cases distributed in 11 states. At the forefront of the use of capital punishment – which is only applicable in crimes of homicide or treason – in that country is Florida, which recorded 19 deaths. Its governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, has defended it under the questioned argument that it is a “strong deterrent” against crime and “an appropriate punishment for the worst criminals”, and has facilitated its use by promoting, in 2023, a modification to the regulations that eliminated the requirement that a jury approve the capital punishment unanimously. To display this content from X (Twitter), you must allow audience measurement and advertising cookies. Accept Manage my options Quoted by USA Today, the deputy director of research for the United States affiliate of Amnesty International, Justin Mazzola, remarked that “the increase in executions in Florida in 2025 is very discouraging. “There have been some atypical years, such as 2023, when Florida executed 6 people, and 2025, when the state executed an alarming 19 people, more than the three states following together –he remarked–. Governor DeSantis seems determined to maintain that pace.” Asked by USA Today about the report, DeSantis’ communications director, Alex Lanfranconi, assured that his “advice” to “avoid the death penalty in Florida would be not to murder anyone.” A minority, contrary to the abolitionist trend In its presentation, Amnesty International points out that, of the 17 countries that carried out executions in 2025, a dozen (Arabia Saudi, North Korea, China, Egypt, the United States, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Vietnam and Yemen) have carried them out uninterruptedly in the last five years. Likewise, four nations resumed executions last year (Japan, the United Arab Emirates, South Sudan and Taiwan), while the infamous list is completed by Kuwait, Singapore and Afghanistan (6 in 2025). law to reinstate the death penalty for offenses such as “high treason,” “terrorism” and “espionage”; Chad established a commission to review a possible reinstatement of that sentence; and Tonga is the only country in Oceania to retain the death penalty in its law. This file photo from October 9, 2014 shows the gurney in the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma. Amnesty International considers them a “minority” when more than half of the world’s countries (113) have abolished capital punishment and “more than two-thirds are abolitionists in law or in practice.” Even nations where it is still in force have taken steps to reduce or eliminate its application. Vietnam abolished it for eight crimes, including drug transportation, bribery and embezzlement; Gambia withdrew it for murder, treason and other offenses against the State; abolish capital punishment; and Kyrgyzstan’s Constitutional Court declared plans to reintroduce it unconstitutional. “With human rights threatened around the world, millions of people continue to fight against the death penalty every year, in a powerful demonstration of our shared humanity. Total abolition is possible if we unite to stand firm against the few isolated countries,” Callamard concluded. With EFE, AFP and local media
Global Impact:
Officials and international observers are expected to continue monitoring the story closely over the coming days.
International media coverage is expected to intensify as more updates become available from official sources.
Stay tuned for further updates on this developing international story.
Source: This article was originally published by France 24 – Noticias y actualidad internacional en vivo and adapted for our international English-speaking audience.
Read the original article here.