Published: 05:13 EST, 21 April 2020 | Updated: 05:16 EST, 21 April 2020, China executed thousands of people last year while Iran was in second place with more than 250 death sentences, Amnesty International revealed today.Â, The human rights watchdog said China 'continued to execute and sentence to death thousands of people' but said the country's exact figures were 'kept secret'.Â, Around the world, confirmed executions fell five per cent to a 10-year low of 657, but that does not include any of the suspected thousands in China.Â, Iran executed at least 251 people including four people who were under 18 when they committed the crime, Amnesty said. Â, Amnesty also drew attention to Saudi Arabia, where a figure of 184 death sentences - an increase since 2018 - had already emerged in January this year. Â, This map from Amnesty International shows the countries that carried out executions last year. The overall number of reported executions worldwide was 778, an increase of almost 15% compared with 2012. New study by Boston researchers says you can blame it on your ethnicity. "Then we have Saudi Arabia, which is about 150, then we have Iraq and Pakistan, with about 80 each.". The Saudi government's Human Rights Commission (HRC) said Monday it documented 27 executions in 2020. The comments below have been moderated in advance. For the second year running, more than half of the people executed were foreign natinoalsÂ, This chart shows the number of executions in the United States, which was 22 last year. There were at least two in 2019.Â, Amnesty raised concerns about 'the secrecy in which executions were carried out in Belarus', meaning people were executed without warning to their families. Â, India followed through with four high-profile executions when the men who raped and killed a 23-year-old woman in a notorious case in 2012 were ordered to be hanged.Â, However, the executions did not take place until early 2020 and no death sentences were carried out in the calendar year 2019.Â, Elsewhere, Japan carried out three executions - down from 15 in 2018 - but Amnesty voiced fears about prisoners with mental disabilities being condemned to death.Â, Iran had the highest number of executions in the Middle East last year with at least 251, of whom some are thought to have been underage at the time they committed the crime which led to their executionÂ, Japan carried out three executions - down from 15 in 2018 - but Amnesty voiced fears about prisoners with mental disabilities being condemned to death, The other countries who carried out executions in 2019 were Egypt, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen, Singapore, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Sudan, North Korea, Syria and Vietnam, the report said. Â. Amnesty says 106 countries have completely abolished the death penalty while another 36 do not carry out executions in practice. They have over 8,000 people on death row. That's compared to an all-time high of 184 … The number of executions has dropped steadily in the 2000s, and significantly since 2007, when the Supreme People’s Court regained the power to review all death sentences; for instance, the Dui Hua Foundationestimates that C… Drug-related executions were recorded in China, Iran, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, where “drug-related beheadings rocketed from 16% of total executions in 2016 to 40” in 2017. Amnesty said a fall in the number of executions worldwide was largely driven by fewer deaths recorded in Iran and Pakistan. 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China remained the world’s leading executioner â€“ but the true extent of the use of the death penalty in China is unknown as this data is classified as a state secret; the global figure of at least 657 excludes t… Most executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan – in that order. As in previous years, this figure does not include the estimated thousands of executions carried out in China, which treats data on the death penalty as a state secret. China remains the world’s topmost executioner and Amnesty fears thousands were likely killed in 2015. 2014 is unlikely to show a downward trend in capital punishment as reductions in other areas are likely to be offset by an uptick in death sentences handed down … According to Amnesty International, at least 778 people were executed last year outside China. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. The group's executive director, John Kamm, said the number was based on research into lower-level court cases and contacts with government officials, and Chinese and Western legal scholars. Chinese legal scholar Hong Daode said 90 per cent of executions last year were for homicide cases. The number of executions is the most in nearly a decade and the second-largest worldwide total in the past 25 years. 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Executions In China Declining Though the numbers are a state secret, it's believed that some 3,000 people were put to death last year. Follow our live updates as the US Senate votes to call witnesses in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. Executions in China The bullet or the needle. The human rights watchdog said China … Some 2,581 people are known to be on death row in the US, although 728 of them are in California where the governor has announced a moratorium on executions. China carries out far more executions than all of the rest of the world combined, … 23 countries were known to have carried out judicial executions in 2016. AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), Live: US Senate moves to closing arguments in Trump's second impeachment trial, Confusion on Senate floor ahead of final vote in Trump impeachment trial, Is hotel quarantine worth the risk as variants spread? This is the lowest number of executions that Amnesty International has recorded in at least a decade. There was a 'significant downward trend' in executions in Pakistan, where at least 632 people were condemned but only 14 executions were definitely carried out.Â, Afghanistan carried out no executions for the first time since 2010, although 14 new death sentences were imposed. Â, Zimbabwe is among the countries taking steps towards abolition, but there have been calls to restore it in the Philippines.Â, Highlighting the Saudi figures, senior Amnesty director Clare Algar said the kingdom's use of the death penalty against dissidents was an 'alarming development'.  Â, 'Also shocking was the massive jump in executions in Iraq, which nearly doubled in just one year,' she said.Â, 'In countries from Belarus to Botswana and Iran to Japan, executions were being carried out without any advance notice to the families, lawyers or in some cases the individuals themselves.Â, 'The death penalty is an abhorrent and inhuman punishment, and there is no credible evidence that it deters crime more than prisons terms.Â, 'We are calling on all states to abolish the death penalty. Human rights group Dui Hua estimates China conducted about 2,000 executions last year, down from 6,500 a decade ago. This is the lowest number of executions that Amnesty International has recorded in at least a decade.