The number of state-ordered executions worldwide surged to the highest level in nearly a decade last year, a damning new report by Amnesty International has revealed. More than 1,500 people were put to death by governments across 15 countries in 2024, the highest figure since 2015 and an increase of almost a third on 2023 figures, the report states. The 'sharp spike' in the death penalty figures was largely driven by three Middle Eastern countries - Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia - where 91 per cent of the recorded executions took place. But the real total could be far higher, with thousands more people believed to be killed by the world's lead executioner China, where death penalty figures are a closely-guarded state secret. Amnesty's report states that while China has yet to publish any figures on the death penalty 'available information indicates that each year thousands of people are executed and sentenced to death.' China's Communist government provoked international outrage after it 'inhumanely' executed four Canadian nationals accused of drug-smuggling last month, with mass killings by Beijing's firing squads condemned by campaigners and officials. Many westerners imprisoned in China face severe penalties - up to and including the death sentence - for drugs offences, with Beijing often exercising its zero-tolerance policy with fatal consequences. Globally, there has been a rise in executions for drug-related crimes, with this the given reason for more than 40 per cent of executions recorded in the latest Amnesty statistics. The human rights organisation recorded 1,518 executions last year, a 32 per cent increase from the year before. The figure is highest recorded by Amnesty International since 2015. Although Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia accounted for 91 per cent of the total known executions recorded worldwide last year, 64 per cent of those were recorded in Iran. Amnesty International also recorded a rise in executions, most notably in Yemen where the total number doubled from at least 15 to at least 38. Egypt and Sinagpore also recorded an increase in executions. Data is not available for North Korea, where Kim Jong Un's brutal regime is believed to carry out executions extensively away from the eyes of the world. Vietnam, Syria and Afghanistan also carry out an unknown number of executions, with Amnesty International's survey recording their count as two in its tally to indicate that at least more than one took place. Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia's part in driving up the figures was due to the authorities in those countries 'callously taking people's lives for drug-related and terrorism charges', according to the report. The majority of state executions in Saudi Arabia are still carried out by sword decapitation. It is a particularly bloody and violent means of capital punishment only carried out by Saudi Arabia - and can be used for a variety of crimes including murder, apostasy (abandoning Islam), homosexuality, witchcraft or sorcery, and 'waging war on God'. Crimes punishable by the death penalty in Iran and Iraq include adultery, sodomy, murder, rape, armed robbery, kidnapping and drug trafficking. Stoning, hanging and firing squads are all methods of killing recorded as being used in Iran, while mass hangings are usually carried out in Iraq. There was a general decline in the number of executions recorded globally in the five years before the pandemic, while the number has climbed since 2020, figures show. In the United States, which is in the top ten countries for most recorded executions, 25 people were put to death in 2024. This was up by one on the previous year, with the US seeing a steady upward trend in the number of executions since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. During his campaigning throughout last year, President Donald Trump repeatedly invoked the death penalty as a tool to protect people 'from violent rapists, murderers and monsters'. Amnesty describes his comments as 'dehumanising' and argued that they promote 'a false narrative that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect on crime.' 'The death penalty is an abhorrent crime with no place in today's world,' Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International's Secretary General, said in response to the latest figures. She said that 'while secrecy continued to shroud scrutiny in some countries that we believe are responsible for thousands of executions, it's evident that countries that retain the death penalty are an isolated minority.' There is an apparent trend towards fewer countries using the death penalty, she explained. 'With just 15 countries carrying out executions in 2024, the lowest number on record for the second consecutive year, this signals a move away from this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.' However, she warned that more states are considering bringing in the death penalty for drug-related offences, including the Maldives, Nigeria and Tonga. While the Amnesty report contained stark findings, it also shared reasons for hope, highlighting the abolition of the death penalty in Zimbabwe as an example. 'Progress in other countries also showed that, with continued advocacy, it is just a matter of time before the death penalty will be fully abolished globally,' the organisation stated. The mandatory death penalty was abolished in Malaysia in 2023, resulting in a resentencing process that reduced the risk of execution for more than 1,000 people. US President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 out of 40 inmates on federal death row before he left the Oval Office. In a landmark vote last December, more than two thirds of UN members voted in favour of a resolution calling on states that use the death penalty to establish a moratorium on its use, with a view to abolition.