Mar. 30 – China executed more people than the rest of the world combined last year, according to a recent report by Amnesty International which numbers the country’s executions in the thousands. The report cited “evidence from previous years and current sources” as the basis for their high estimate.

Although Beijing has said that it executes fewer people now than it has in the past, the official number is unclear because the government maintains that the details of national court rulings and punishments are a state secret. This lack of transparency is one of the major points of contention the human rights group takes with the Chinese government.

“The Chinese authorities claim that fewer executions are taking place,” said Amnesty International’s Interim Secretary General Claudio Cordone. “If this is true, why won’t they tell the world how many people the State put to death?”

The death penalty can be issued as a punishment for approximately 68 offenses in China, including non-violent ones, according to the report.

Those executed last year include British national Akmal Shaikh on charges of drug smuggling, Chinese businesswoman Du Yimin on charges of fraudulently raising funds, Tibetans Losang Gyaltse and Loyar on charges of fermenting unrest in the autonomous region, and at least eight Uyghur and one Han Chinese who were put to death following the riots in Xinjiang last summer on charges ranging from robbery and arson to murder.

“No one who is sentenced to death in China receives a fair trial in accordance with international human rights standards,” the report said. “Many have had confessions accepted despite saying in court that these were extracted under torture; have had to prove themselves innocent, rather than be proven guilty; and have had limited access to legal counsel.”

After China, other countries that frequently practiced in the execution of their criminals last year include Iran with at least 388 put to death, Iraq with at least 120, Saudi Arabia with at least 69, and the United States with 52. According to the report, the United States was the only country in the Americas to use the death penalty last year.

Iran, Mongolia, Vietnam, North Korea, and Belarus were criticized alongside China in the report for the secrecy with which they conduct the executions of their criminals.

“Such secrecy is indefensible,” it said. “If capital punishment is a legitimate act of government as these nations claim, there is no reason for its use to be hidden from the public and international scrutiny.”

The report wasn’t all negative, though, boasting the addition of Burundi and Togo into the ranks of 95 of the world’s nations that have completely erased the death penalty from its laws. Also, 2009 marked the first time since Amnesty International began keeping records that there had not been a single execution in Europe.