According to the latest "Death Sentences and Executions" report released by the human rights organization Amnesty International (AI), at least 1,153 people were executed worldwide in 2023. Amnesty says that is the highest number it has documented since 2015, adding that nearly three-quarters of those executions took place in Iran.

The thousands of executions that likely took place in China last year were not included in the AI report's statistics. Nor were those in Vietnam and North Korea, where AI suspects large numbers of executions were carried out. Most of the world's executions, says Amnesty, took place in China (thousands), Iran (at least 853) and Saudi Arabia (172).

"In Iran, the number of death sentences handed down and carried out for both political and non-political reasons rose significantly," as Rebin Rahmani, a Kurdish activist based in Paris told DW. Rahmani works with the France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), which collects and verifies information on human rights violations in Iran.

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"Twenty-nine Kurdish prisoners have been executed in........

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