Overview
- Amnesty's annual report, released Monday, documents at least 2,707 executions in 2025 across 17 countries, a 78% rise and the highest recorded since 1981.
- Iran accounted for at least 2,159 executions, more than double 2024, and Amnesty says authorities use hangings to punish dissent, with recent cases like cyber expert Ehsan Afrashteh executed on spying charges after a disputed confession.
- China likely executes the most people but treats the figures as a state secret, which means the true global total is far higher than the documented count.
- Nearly half of the known executions, 1,257, were for drug offences in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Kuwait and China, a use Amnesty says violates international law that reserves death sentences for the most serious crimes.
- Rises also hit Saudi Arabia with at least 356 and the United States with 47, and Israel advanced a death‑penalty law for certain terrorist murders that now faces Supreme Court review.