2. Iran
According to Amnesty International, there were 567 executions in Iran in 2016, which is a 42% drop compared to 2015. It is possible to expect that the number of death sentences in the country will continue to decrease in the future since some parts of the country’s drug laws are going through change. Human Rights Watch reported that in August this year the country’s parliament approved the amendment to the drug law, raising drug penalty bar so now people caught with small amounts of drugs won’t face capital punishment. However “production, distribution, trafficking, and selling” of larger amounts of drugs still can lead to death penalty. Amnesty International notes that 328 people were executed last year because of drug-related crimes in Iran, and that majority of people who were put on the death row came from the poorest and the most vulnerable parts of the society. AI also reports that since 1988 Iran has carried out 10,000 executions for drug-related crimes. And now, let’s see the number one on our list of top 12 countries that have the death penalty or use capital punishment for drugs.
