New executions reported in China

China has executed three drug dealers to mark this week's International Day Against Drug Abuse, according to Reuters.

From Reuters:

" ... Chinese courts sentenced five people to death for drug dealing and executed another three in a mass sentencing aimed at drawing public attention to the issue of rising drug abuse, state media reported on Wednesday.

" … Courts in four Chinese cities handed down verdicts in 20 drug trafficking cases earlier this week to mark International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which falls on Thursday, Xinhua news agency said …"

Shroud of secrecy

China has about 68 crimes that are punishable by death – things like drug offences, but also many non-violent crimes such as tax fraud, bribery, arson and prostitution.

It's known for using the death penalty more often at certain times of year, say the run up to major national events, around Chinese New Year and around 26 June, the International Day Against Drug Abuse.

So how many people does China execute each year? We don't know because the figures are a state secret. It's most certainly more than any other country in the world, but no one outside the echelons of power knows for sure.

" … Only a fraction of death sentences and executions carried out in China are publicly reported, and the extent and detail of the information selectively released by the relevant authorities fluctuates widely year by year …" says an Amnesty International report.

Last year, on the basis of news reports, Amnesty reckons at least 470 people were executed, though undoubtedly it was more.

Torture and interference

Amnesty doesn't believe anybody sentenced to death in China gets a fair trial in line with international standards. China's system doesn't presume innocence. It uses evidence extracted under torture. It restricts defendants' access to lawyers. And it's subject to political interference.

And if that's not enough, execution is a cruel and inhuman practice.

In China, condemned prisoners are sometimes paraded in an open truck on the way to their execution, sometimes they have to wear a placard with their name crossed out in red ink, sometimes they are executed minutes after their final appeal fails and sometimes they are stopped from seeing their relatives one last time.

China must abolish the death penalty, it's brutal and researchers say it doesn't deter offenders.

And it should start the process of abolition by first making public the actual number of people it executes and radically cutting the number of capital crimes.

A start perhaps

Though there is also some good news on this front with the China Daily reporting that the Supreme People's Court has overturned about 15 per cent of the death sentences handed down by high courts in the first six months of this year.

" ... Gao Jinghong, presiding judge of the SPC's Third Criminal Law Court, said the majority of the death sentences were overturned because they were inappropriate or lacked sufficient evidence.

" ...Top court officials, including Chief Justice Xiao Yang and Gao himself, believe China is following the global trend of reducing the death sentence. Capital punishment could be abolished when social conditions demand so, but for now it has to stay. ..."

Well, it's a beginning.

What do you think?