Report: Bangladesh 3rd in death penalty

According to the report titled “Death Sentences and Executions Report 2015,” the South Asian nation also occupied the top spot among the South Asian countries where such sentences were handed out last year. The Amnesty report also alleged that the proceedings of the International Crimes Tribunal, a special court established to try people accused of crimes committed during the 1971 War of Independence, were marked with severe irregularities and violations of the right to a fair trial. It stated: “Challenges to the jurisdiction of the court continued to be barred due to a constitutional provision. Statements from prosecution witnesses shown by the defence to have been false were still used as evidence in court. “Affidavits by defence witnesses that the accused was too far from the site of the offence to be involved were not admitted. The government prevented defence witnesses abroad from attending trials by denying visas. Appeals processes were marked by similar flaws.” It added: “Despite repeated calls by Amnesty International and other human rights organisations to stop executions after unfair trials and flawed appeal hearings, three prisoners were executed in 2015, bringing the number of executions after ICT trials to four.” As per the report released on Wednesday, Pakistan is the second top country in the region having imposed at least 121 death sentences last year while India occupied the third position by awarding capital punishment to some 75 people. Another South Asian country Sri Lanka bagged the fourth position by sentencing at least 51 people to death. The report stated that at least 1,634 people were executed in 25 countries in 2015. “This represents a stark increase on the number of executions recorded in 2014 of more than 50%.” In 2014, Amnesty International recorded 1,061 executions in 22 countries worldwide. This is the highest number of executions recorded in more than 25 years (since 1989), said the report. Most executions took place in China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the USA – in that order. “China remained the world’s top executioner – but the true extent of the use of the death penalty in China is unknown as this data is considered a state secret; the figure of 1,634 excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out in China,” the report added. Excluding China, almost 90% of all executions took place in just three countries – Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, it further added. “During 2015, 25 countries, about one in 10 of all countries worldwide, are known to have carried out executions – a rise from 22 in 2014. This number has decreased significantly from two decades ago (39 countries carried out executions in 1996).” 140 countries worldwide, more than two-thirds, are abolitionist in law or practice. In 2015, four countries – Fiji, Madagascar, the Republic of Congo and Suriname – abolished the death penalty for all crimes. In total, 102 countries have done so – a majority of the world’s states. In 2015, Mongolia also passed a new criminal code abolishing the death penalty which will come into effect later in 2016. Commutations or pardons of death sentences were recorded in 34 countries in 2015. At least 71 people who had been sentenced to death were exonerated in six countries in 2015: China (1), Egypt (1), Nigeria (41), Pakistan (at least 21), Taiwan (1) and USA (6). At least 1,998 death sentences were recorded in 61 countries in 2015, a decline from 2014 (at least 2,466 death sentences in 55 countries). At least 20,292 people were on death row at the end of 2015. Reports indicated that at least nine people who were under 18 at the time of the crime for which they were sentenced to death were executed in 2015 – four in Iran and five in Pakistan.