Repost from the Guardian UK http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/16/iran-public-executions-hangings-human-rights
"A number of crimes such as murder and rape – and even homosexuality – can send a convict to the gallows, but it is the drug-related offences that accounted for more than 80% of the killings in the country last year. Latest figures on the number of executions that are known to have been carried out in 2011 globally indicate that half of the killings took place in Iran, although China, which considers the precise figures about its use of death penalty as a state secret, is not included in the calculation and still remains at the top of the list."
