[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 6



IRAN:

Amnesty: Iran regime executed nearly 1000 people in 2015


Iran's regime executed close to a thousand people, including juvenile 
offenders, in 2015 and largely fueled the "dramatic global rise" in the number 
of executions recorded last year which saw more people put to death than at any 
point in the last quarter-century, Amnesty International said in a report on 
Wednesday.

"Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to at least 743 the 
year before," Amnesty International wrote in its annual Death penalty 2015 
report.

"Iran is also one of the world's last executioners of juvenile offenders, in 
flagrant breach of international law," the report said. The Iranian regime put 
to death at least four people who were under 18 at the time of the crime for 
which they were convicted in 2015, the human rights group said.

"Iran alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded" in the Middle East 
and North Africa, Amnesty said, adding that the regime continued to sentence 
people to death for crimes - including drug trafficking, corruption, "adultery" 
and "blasphemy."

According to Amnesty's figures, the Iranian regime was responsible last year 
for nearly 60 % of all executions in the world with the exception of those in 
China.

Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's Secretary General, said that the Iranian 
regime put people to death at "unprecedented levels, often after grossly unfair 
trials."

"This slaughter must end," he said.

(soruce: NCR-Iran)