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Washington DC - Iran continues to rank second in the world for executions, according to Amnesty International, with 317 people put to death last year. That figure nearly doubled the number of prisoners executed in Iran the previous year. Only China performed more executions in 2007. The Defenders of Human Rights Centre, a group led by Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, said it “deplores and denounces the systematic violation of human rights in Iran.” The group also reports a decline in freedom of opinion and expression since the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005.