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| - Qatar ended a two-decade hiatus on the use of capital punishment last year, putting to death a Nepali migrant worker, it emerged Wednesday in a report by Amnesty International. Foreign embassies in Doha complained to the authorities over the execution of the man, convicted of murder, which followed the unusual refusal of the victim's family to offer clemency, diplomatic sources told AFP. "Qatar resumed executions in May when it executed Anil Chaudhary, a Nepali national, by shooting following the confirmation of his death sentence by the Court of Cassation," Amnesty said in an annual report on the use of the death penalty. The number of death sentences passed in Qatar, which will host the World Cup football tournament next year, increased from at least two in 2019 to at least four in 2020, the report said. "India, Oman... and Taiwan also resumed state killings," it added. Nepali daily the Himalayan Times reported that Chaudhary, who worked at a car wash, was found guilty of killing a Qatari with a kukri knife. "We got to know about the execution after the (Qatari) Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed us about it," Kumar Dahal, director general of Nepal's Department of Foreign Employment, told the paper, adding that Chaudhary was put to death by firing squad. The Qatari government declined to comment. gw/sls/dv
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