Around 2,400 prisoners were executed in China last year, a decrease since 2012 said a San Francisco rights group.

China is known to be the world leader in capital punishment, but the Dui Hua Foundation revealed that the nation's number of executions have decreased by 20 percent since 2012.

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Du Hua, a non-profit organization that seeks clemency and better treatment of prisoners, said that it had obtained the list of death penalty executions from a "judicial official" who has access into the number of death penalties  being carried out every year.

"China currently executes more people every year than the rest of the world combined, but it has executed far fewer people since the power of final review of death sentences was returned to the (Supreme People's Court) in 2007," Dui Hua said.

The foundation said it is predicting that another 2,400 death row inmates will be executed before 2015.

Hua said China's Supreme Court examines all the death sentences in the country and from July 2013 to September 14 this year the court has published 150 death penalty review decisions with the majority of cases involving murder and drug cases.

Although human rights organizations have subjected the major Asian nation to criticism for its high execution rates, China has long defended its liberal use of the death penalty as necessary according to the nation's particular legal and cultural conditions as well as a useful deterrent in preventing more crime.

China has in particular pushed the death penalty when it comes to issuing punishments in its anti-terrorism and anti-corruption campaigns.

In its annual report of death penalty released this year, Amnesty International said its 2013 report showed an increase of 14 percent in executions worldwide compared to the 2012 numbers. 

TagsDui Hua Foundation, executions, China death penalty, capital punishment