Death penalty remains rife in Asia

CAPITAL punishment is in decline worldwide but a number of Asian countries are executing more people, according to the latest report compiled by Amnesty International. Many criminals throughout the region are under sentence of death.

In a week that saw China execute three Filipinos, convicted of smuggling drugs, by lethal injection, Amnesty published Death Sentences and Executions in 2010, which said the number of countries that imposed death sentences in the region in 2010 increased compared with 2009, when 16 countries were known to have sentenced people to death.

In 2010, Amnesty was not able to confirm comprehensive figures on the use of the death penalty for China, Malaysia, North Korea, Singapore and Vietnam although executions were known to have been carried out in all these countries.

The report read: “Available information confirmed at least 82 executions were carried out in five other countries in the region: Bangladesh (at least nine), Japan (two), North Korea (at least 60), Malaysia (at least one), and Taiwan (four). These are minimum estimates as few official figures on the use of the death penalty are released by governments. The number of people executed in China is believed to be in the thousands.”

More from ucanews.com