2022 was the darkest year for death sentences in the last five years. 883 people were sentenced to death, which is 53 percent more than in 2021.

 In 2022, 883 people were sentenced to death in the world, which is 53 percent more than 2021 and the highest in five years. Amnesty International's annual report says that due to the large increase in death sentences in Iran and Saudi Arabia, especially in Asia, such a high increase in death sentence has been seen.

According to the Amnesty report, 70 percent of the total death sentences carried out in the Middle East and North Africa were carried out in Iran, where 576 people were hanged there in 2022. This is 83 percent more than in 2021 when 314 people were hanged. Of these, 255 cases were related to drugs while 279 people were found guilty of murder.

In Saudi Arabia, there was a three-fold increase in death sentences in 2022 as compared to 2021 and 196 people were executed there. This is the biggest number in the last 30 years. 85 people were given the death penalty for terrorism-related crimes, which is more than nine times the previous year. Apart from this, 57 people were sentenced to death in drug-related crimes, whereas in 2021, no person was given the death penalty under this crime.

Compared to 2021, Kuwait, Myanmar, Palestine, Singapore and the US also recorded a large increase in the number of death sentences in 2022. In 2021, 579 people were given the death penalty in 18 countries while in 2022, 883 people were killed in 20 countries.

This is not a comprehensive figure because countries such as China, North Korea and Vietnam do not make public the number of death sentences.

According to Amnesty, of the 112 people sentenced to death in Indonesia in 2022, 94 per cent were for drug-related crimes, which do not qualify as the "most serious crimes" under international law.

In Indonesia, there is a provision of death penalty for crimes like murder, terrorism and drug trafficking and there is death by shooting. Before 2022, in 2016, four people were shot in the crime of drug trafficking. Three of these were Nigerian citizens and one Indonesian. At present, 450 people have been sentenced to death in the country and are waiting for their execution. There are also 88 foreign nationals from 18 countries.

165 in India

Last year, 169 people were sentenced to death in Bangladesh, which is the highest in the Asia-Pacific region. After that India's number remained, where 165 people were sentenced to death. Pakistan ranked third in the region with 127 people sentenced to death.

Last year in America, 18 people were given death sentence while in 2021, 11 people were given death sentence. However, among the 20 countries in the world where the death penalty was given, America was at the bottom.

The report says that 325 people were sentenced to death in drug-related cases in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Singapore, which is more than double that of 2021. Amnesty said that the number of countries that have abolished the death penalty has now increased to 112, including Papua New Guinea. Apart from this, Malaysia has also taken an important step to abolish the death penalty in many crimes.

In the last ten years, 2022 proved to be the year with the fourth highest death penalty. Maximum 1,634 people were given death sentence in 2015. In 2016, 1,032 people were given the death penalty and in 2017, 993.