World press review on capital punishment in Iran (March 27, 2014)

"Iran and Iraq are responsible for a sharp rise in capital punishment, accounting for more than two-thirds of the world's executions last year. Although significantly fewer countries use the death penalty today than two decades ago, "killing sprees" in Iran and Iraq helped cause a 15% increase in the number of executions globally, according to Amnesty International's annual survey on death sentences and capital punishment", writes the Guardian.

At least 778 executions were known to have been carried out globally in 2013, 538 of them in Iran and Iraq alone, showed the 62-page report published on Thursday. China is believed to have executed several thousand people – more than the rest of the world together – but exact figures are unavailable as Beijing authorities classify execution statistics as a state secret, reports the newspaper.

"Earlier this month, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, criticised Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, for his failure to reduce the country's rate of executions. The UN chief said Rouhani's new administration had not changed Tehran's approach to the death penalty. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Iran, said that at least 176 people had been put to death since the beginning of 2014", writes the Guardian.

Saudi Arabia acknowledged executing at least 79 people, of whom three were juvenile offenders, in defiance of international law. The US put to death 39, Somalia executed at least 34, Sudan 21, Yemen 13, Japan eight, Vietnam seven and Taiwan six.