(ANSAmed) - ROME, AUGUST 4 - The use of the death penalty to
implement the Sharia, Islamic law, continues to increase year by
year: in 2010 there were at least 714 executions, against 658 in
2009 and around 585 in the previous year, in 13 countries with a
Muslim majority, many of which ordered by religious tribunals.
The sentences were carried out by hanging, decapitation and
execution by firing squad. These figures emerged from the 2011
report presented today in Rome by the association 'Nessuno
tocchi Caino' (Hands Off Cain).
Worldwide 24 of the 47 countries with a Muslim majority
practice capital punishment; 18 of these have a judicial system
that explicitly refers to the Sharia. There is only one Islamic
country, Iran, that applied the death penalty in 2010 and in the
first six months of 2011 to minors who were under the age of 18
when they committed their crime. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, Mauritania and Egypt also sentenced minors to death,
but did not execute the penalty.
The Sharia has been applied through hanging, decapitation and
execution by firing squad. In Iran, Nigeria and Pakistan people
have been sentenced to death by stoning, but there are no
reports of actual executions by this method, though stoning is
used without regular trials in Somalia, Afghanistan and
Pakistan.
Hanging, often in public, is the most widespread method. The
Iranian version is particularly cruel: in this country a crane
or a low platform is used that causes the convicts to die a slow
and painful death. The only country to apply decapitation is
Saudi Arabia. In 2010 there were 27 executions, less than half
of the number recorded in 2009 (at least 69), but the number of
decapitations increased significantly in 2011 (34 on July 25).
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