An Amnesty International report has found that there were more executions worldwide in 2015 than any other time in the past 25 years, with 90 percent of the executions happening in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.
The report said at least 1,634 people were executed last year, warning that the actual number may be much higher, as many "governments do not publish information on their use of the death penalty, making confirmation of the use challenging."
"The number of known executions rose by more than 50 percent compared with 2014 - this development is unsettling and alarming," Oliver Hendrich of Amnesty International, told Al Jazeera.
In the Middle East, every country except Oman and Israel imposed death sentences in 2015. Amnesty said it was not able to confirm figures for Yemen, Syria and Iran, but said at least 977 were executed in Iran, mostly for drug-related offenses.
Numbers for executions in other countries in the region included: 22 in Egypt, 26 in Iraq, two in Jordan, two in Oman, at least 158 in Saudi Arabia, and one in the UAE. Meanwhile at least 831 death sentences were handed down across 17 countries in the Middle East.
The Amnesty report also added, however, that for the first time, countries imposing capital punishment were in the minority, as 102 countries around the world had done away with the death penalty for any crime by the end of 2015.
