News and actions

President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya

4000 Kenyans on death row get life

5 August 2009

More than 4,000 prisoners facing execution in Kenya had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment on Monday in the largest commutation in history, news sources reported.
Iraqi prisoner clutches bars of cell at Abu Ghraib Prison, Iraq

US detainees remain at risk as they are transferred to Iraqi custody

22 July 2009

Hundreds of detainees held by the US military in Iraq are being put at risk of execution, torture or other ill treatment as they are transferred to Iraqi custody without safeguards.

Russia moves one step closer to death penalty abolition

20 November 2009

Amnesty International has welcomed a decision by Russia's Constitutional Court that brings the country a step closer to abolishing the death penalty.

Ohio moves to resume executions under new protocol

20 November 2009

Amnesty International is appealing to the authorities in the state of Ohio not to resume executions, following their adoption of a new lethal injection protocol.

Obama must press China to uphold human rights

13 November 2009

President Obama must use his first official visit to China to urge the authorities to reverse the sharp rise in human rights violations in the country, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Iranian authorities must stop imminent execution of Kurdish man

13 November 2009

The Iranian authorities must halt the imminent execution of Sherko Moarefi, a Kurdish man convicted of "enmity against God" over his alleged membership of a proscribed Kurdish organization.

Iran executes Kurdish man

11 November 2009

Ehsan Fattahian was hanged in connection with his alleged membership of an illegal opposition group. Two other Iranian Kurdish men also feared to be at imminent risk of execution.