Amnesty International has expressed concern that the death penalty continues to be applied in some Middle Eastern countries, as it reported a worldwide decline in executions and death sentences in 2017, reports Al Jazeera.
In its annual report published on Thursday, the international rights group documented at least 993 executions in 23 countries last year - a four percent decline from 2016, when 1,032 executions were recorded.
From a record high of 3,117 in 2016, since Amnesty began documentation, 2,591 death sentences were imposed worldwide - a 17 percent decline.
But for the second year in a row, the Middle Eastern countries of Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq were the top three for the number of executions in the world - along with Pakistan, they account for 84 percent of executions recorded worldwide.
China is widely believed to execute thousands of people every year, but data on executions "is classified as a state secret", according to Amnesty.
"In many countries in the [Middle East and North Africa] region, the death penalty is used after proceedings that did not meet international fair trial standards," said Oluwatosin Popoola, Amnesty International adviser on the death penalty.
"This includes the extraction of confessions through torture and other ill-treatment," he told Al Jazeera in a phone interview.