Almost nine hundred people were executed in 2022 in 20 countries, the highest number since 2017, Amnesty International said in its annual report on the death penalty released today, denouncing the “killing frenzy” that has gripped it. the authorities of certain states.

“The number of executions recorded in 2022 reached a five-year high as [αρχές στις] countries to which this record is mainly due, in the Middle East and North Africa, were seized by a murderous frenzy,” the NGO says.

The human rights organization counted 883 executions in 20 countries in 2022, a number increased by 53% compared to the year before.

“This spectacular increase in executions, which does not include thousands more likely to have taken place in China in the past year, is mainly due to countries in the Middle East and North Africa, where the numbers recorded rose from 520 [εκτελέσεις] in 2021 to 825 in 2022”, emphasizes Amnesty International.

The number of executions in Iran rose from 314 in 2021 to 576 in 2022, tripled in Saudi Arabia, from 65 to 196 – the highest number the NGO has recorded in the Sunni kingdom in 30 years – while in Egypt executions 24 people last year, according to the report.

Saudi Arabia went so far as to “execute 81 prisoners in just one day,” says Amnesty International’s secretary-general, Anies Kalamar.

He also complains that in Iran, as part of the authorities’ “desperate attempt” to “end the popular uprising”, people were executed “simply for exercising their right to protest”.

Amnesty International highlights that the total number of executions worldwide in 2022 was actually “much higher” due to the “secrecy surrounding the death penalty” and prevents an accurate assessment of the situation in countries such as “China, North Korea and Vietnam”.

“Although the exact number of people executed in China is unknown, it is clear that the country has remained the largest executioner,” the NGO added.

In the report, however, there is talk of a “ray of hope”: six more countries have moved to abolish, in full or in part, the death penalty in 2022.

Kazakhstan, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic have moved to abolish the death penalty for all crimes, while Equatorial Guinea and Zambia now only impose it for particularly heinous criminal law crimes.