The Pakistani government lifted its moratorium on the death penalty permanently in March, which led to more than 150 executions in the last six months. Pakistan now executes more people than Saudi Arabia, but it is important to note why.
Christof Heyns, the United Nations Special Raporteur of Extrajudicial Summary and Arbitrary Executions, recently spoke out against the rise in executions in Saudi Arabia. “It is certainly very disturbing that there is such a fast pace of executions at the moment,” Heyns told AFP. “If it continues at this pace we will have double the number of executions, or more than double the number of executions, that we had last year.”
Saudi Arabia has advertised for eight executioners to deal with a soaring number of capital punishment charges. The advert, which appeared on a civil service jobs portal yesterday, listed the job as “executing a judgment of death”. The successful applicants
Sister Helen Prejean testified that Tsarnaev, who along with his brother Tamerlan murdered three people, including an eight-year-old boy, and the wounded of 264 others, including 17 people who lost legs, was “absolutely sincere” about expressing remorse to her over his actions.
Bangledeshi authorities executed Jamaat-e-Islami party official Muhammad Kamaruzzaman for crimes against humanity during the country’s war of independence forty years ago. He was hanged two years after he was sentenced to death.
In a historic statement, Pope Francis has closed the door to the death penalty, calling it “inadmissible.” In so doing, he has gone beyond any pope before him in condemning capital punishment.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has executed approximately sixty-four of its own citizens in the first few weeks of January, according to recent reports by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and Iran Focus.
The flogging of liberal blogger Raif Badawi has been postponed on medical grounds, according to latest reports. He had been due to receive the second instalment of 50 lashings in front of a mosque in Jeddeh this afternoon. His punishment,
A Belgian rapist and murderer has been granted the right to be euthanized rather than spend the rest of his life in jail, as he says his incarceration is causing him “psychological suffering”. The death penalty is outlawed under European
