Report: Mideast countries top executions list outside China

Blindfolded prisoners await their executions in Iraq (File/Iraq Ministry of Justice/AP)

Middle Eastern countries remained among the world’s leading executioners outside of China last year, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

The number of executions worldwide plummeted to its lowest level in more than a decade, with at least 483 people executed in 2020 compared to 657 the previous year, as the coronavirus pandemic slowed criminal trials and disrupted scheduled executions.