China tem executado duas a três vezes mais presos...
Autor: George Sturaro | Publicado: 2010-03-30T04:14:00-07:00

China tem executado duas a  três vezes mais presos que o mundo todo junto nos últimos anos.  Confiram os números na matéria abaixo, fornecidos pela Anestia  Internacional.Noticiário - Seleção Diária de  Notícias Internacionais -  30/03/2010  França -  International Herald Tribune         Título: China Leads  World in Executions, Amnesty Says     Data:  30/03/2010         By MARK McDONALDHONG KONG — China  executed more  people last year than the rest of the world combined,  according to a  report published Tuesday by Amnesty International, as  the rights group  called on Beijing to divulge how many executions it  carries out.Amnesty  International said there were “thousands”  of Chinese executions in 2009  — the precise number is considered a  state secret — and the rights  group gave no minimum estimates for  executions in China or worldwide.The  report said at least 714  people were executed in 17 other countries,  led by Iran, Iraq, Saudi  Arabia and the United States. Methods of  execution included beheading,  stoning, electrocution, hanging, firing  squads and lethal injection.Amnesty  International said in its  report last year that China had executed at  least 1,718 people in 2008,  nearly three-fourths of the 2,390  executions worldwide that year.“The  Chinese authorities claim  that fewer executions are taking place,” said  Claudio Cordone, Amnesty  International’s interim secretary general. “If  this is true, why won’t  they tell the world how many people the state  put to death?”Although  admittedly incomplete, the figures from  Amnesty International are  widely accepted as authoritative. The American  State Department, for  example, has cited the group’s findings in its  reports on human rights.Iran  put at least 388 people to death  last year, according to the latest  Amnesty report, with about a third of  the executions coming in the  seven weeks of protest and turmoil that  followed the country’s disputed  presidential election in June.In  Europe in 2009, for the first  time since Amnesty International began  keeping records, there were no  executions. Belarus is the only European  nation with the death penalty  still on its books; the former Soviet  republic reportedly executed two  men two weeks ago.The  Constitutional Court in Russia also  renewed a moratorium on death  sentences in November and the Amnesty  International report cited the  court ruling that said the “path towards  full abolition of the death  penalty is irreversible.”The  United States was the only country  in the Americas to execute anyone in  2009, according to the report,  which said the 52 executions were the  highest total in three years.  Nearly half the executions, 24, came in  Texas, while New Mexico  officially banned the death penalty.Amnesty  International, which  has long opposed the death penalty, said death  sentences and executions  continued to be used for political purposes,  often after unfair trials,  and were used “disproportionately against  the poor, minorities and  members of racial, ethnic and religious  communities.”The report  said at least 2,001 people were  sentenced to death in 56 countries in  2009.“The death penalty  is cruel and degrading, and an affront  to human dignity,” said Mr.  Cordone.In addition to China, seven  other Asian countries were  said to have carried out a total of 26  executions last year —  Bangladesh, Japan, North Korea, Malaysia,  Singapore, Thailand and  Vietnam. India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and  Indonesia had no executions.Two  executions in Thailand were its  first since 2003, the report said, as  two men found guilty of drug  crimes were executed by lethal injection.Botswana  and Sudan were  the only countries in sub-Saharan Africa to execute  criminals in 2009,  while Kenya carried out what Amnesty called “the  largest mass  commutation of death sentences ever known.” More than  4,000 condemned  prisoners in Kenya had their sentences reduced to  imprisonment.Burundi  and Togo abolished the death penalty in  2009, Amnesty International  said, joining 95 countries that have banned  capital punishment.