More people were executed in Asia in 2008 than in the rest of the world put together. At least 1,838 (76%) of all total reported executions were carried out by Asian states.
The following 11 countries are known to have carried out a total of at least 1,838 executions in 2008: China (at least 1,718), Pakistan (at least 36), Viet Nam (at least 19), Afghanistan (at least 17), North Korea (at least 15), Japan (15), Indonesia (10), Bangladesh (5), Mongolia (at least 1), Malaysia (at least 1), and Singapore (at least 1).
The following 16 countries are known to have sentenced a total of least 7,767 people to death: China (at least 7,003), Pakistan (at least 236), Bangladesh (at least 185), Afghanistan (131), India (at least 70), Viet Nam (at least 59), Japan (27), Malaysia (at least 22), Indonesia (at least 10), Taiwan (at least 8), Singapore (5), Thailand (at least 3), North Korea (+), South Korea (at least 2), Sri Lanka (2) and Laos (2).
In both Mongolia and North Korea, executions are marked by secrecy and a lack of transparency. This means that it is impossible for Amnesty International to gain reliable statistics and information about the use of the death penalty in these two countries.
In China, those facing capital charges do not receive fair trails. Failings include the lack of prompt access to lawyers, a lack of presumption of innocence, political interference in the judiciary and failure to exclude evidence extracted through torture.
After the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) began to review all death sentences on 1 January 2007, authorities have been reporting a drop in the number of death sentences. According to a senior SPC official, the SPC overturned about 15 per cent of the death sentences handed down by high courts in the first half of 2008. However, statistics on death sentences and executions remain state secrets and it is impossible for external observers to verify this claim.
The estimated number of people on death row in Pakistan is over 7,000. In June 2008, the Prime Minister announced that death sentences would be commuted to life imprisonment. Despite this, a Presidential Ordinance was issued in November that extended the death penalty to cyber crimes – and executions continued.
Japan carried out a total of 15 executions in 2008 (the highest known number since 1975). There are estimated to be approximately 100 people on death row. The prison authorities reportedly carry out executions by hanging, usually in secret. In June, Japan executed three men, including Miyazaki Tsutomu. According to his lawyer, he was mentally ill and had been receiving psychiatric medical treatment in the detention centre for more than a decade.
CASE STUDY:
AFGHANISTAN
Student and journalist Perwiz Kambakhsh was sentenced to death for blasphemy in January 2008. The sentence was quashed on 21 October 2008 by a court of appeal in Kabul and replaced with a 20-year prison term. He was convicted under a law that provides for a sentence of no more than five years imprisonment.
Perwiz Kambakhsh had been arrested on 27 October 2007, and was sentenced to death three months later by a Primary court in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. There were no legal grounds for either his conviction or his sentence.
According to the prosecution, he had downloaded an article from the internet that questioned the condition of women in Islam, added some commentary and distributed it at Balkh University, where he was studying. He denied this, saying that he had been “coerced” into confessing. Despite this, he was convicted of breaching Article 347 of the Penal Code (disturbing or stopping a religious ritual or process or damaging a place of worship). This offence carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment, but the court claimed there was a gap in the law, meaning that Sharia could be applied, under Article 130 of Afghanistan’s Constitution.
The trial proceedings at the primary and appeal hearings were grossly unfair. At the primary level hearing, which only lasted four-minutes, Perwiz Kambakhsh had no legal representation and no opportunity to effectively defend himself. The appeal court failed to determine beyond reasonable doubt that Kambakhsh’s confession had not been coerced. According to Afghanistan’s Criminal Procedure Code, he should have been released when his appeal had lasted more than two months without reaching a result, but he was not released even though his appeal lasted five months.
Countries in the Asia Pacific that retain the Death Penalty include:
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Viet Nam.
Countries which retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes such as murder but can be considered abolitionist in practice in that they have not executed anyone during the past 10 years and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions. The list also includes countries which have made an international commitment not to use the death penalty, those in the Asia Pacific include:
Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Sri Lanka