MILAN — The number of executions worldwide rose last year despite a general global trend toward abolishing capital punishment, according to a report released Friday by an Italian anti-death penalty group.
The organization Hands off Cain, based in Rome, said Friday that at least 4,106 people were executed in 2013, up from 3,967 in 2012, due to increases in Iran, which recorded the highest number of executions in 15 years, and Iraq, which had the highest number since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein.
China remains the world’s top executioner, with more than 3,000 executions carried out last year, about equal to 2012.
Hands off Cain said 12 countries were considered to have abolished the death penalty since the start of 2013, either through a moratorium or by simply not carrying out an execution in a decade.