Capital punishment in Iran

Capital punishment has been decreasing in Iran in recent years. The Iranian parliament is working on an amendment to the death sentence on drug traffickers, which will decrease 70 percent of executions for drug offenses, the Iranian High Council for Human Rights Deputy Chairman Kazem Gharib Abadi said.

Iran is the world's most prolific executioner of offenders convicted while juveniles, Amnesty International said on Jan. 26, accusing the Islamic republic of using torture and ill-treatment to extract confessions from minors.  

Egypt and Nigeria accounted for well over 1,000 of the death sentences announced last year, more than a third of the world's total, Amnesty International says in its latest annual report on the death penalty.