01 January 1999 :

At least 5,611 executions were carried out in 30 countries in 2003.


China: at least 5,000
Iran: at least 154 executions
Iraq: at least 113 (up to April 9 when Saddam Hussein´s regime fell)
Vietnam: at least 69 executions
United States: 65
Saudi Arabia: 52
Kazakhstan: at least 19
Pakistan: at least 18
Democratic Republic of the Congo: 15
Singapore: at least 14
Sudan: at least 13
Uzbekistan: at least 12
Chad: 9
Jordan: at least 7
Taiwan*: 7
Yemen: at least 7
Uganda: at least 11
Botswana: 4
Somalia: 4 (not confirmed)
Thailand: 4
Zimbabwe: 4
Cuba: 3
Bangladesh: 2
Tajikistan: at least 2
Belarus: at least 1
Japan: 1
Qatar: at least 1

There is no official or other information, but an unspecified number of executions are known to have taken place in 2003 in North Korea, Egypt and Mongolia.


Source: Hands Off Cain

In bold, liberal democracies (6) that carried out executions (at least 81)
In italics, changes compared to 2002
*Non-UN member states











The classification "liberal democracy" is based on the rigorous analytic standards employed by Freedom House in its Freedom in the World 2004 report on the state of political rights and civil liberties around the world (see www.freedomhouse.org).