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CHINA: Highest death sentences

/* ---------- "CHINA: Highest death sentences" ---------- */
Amnesty International
International Secretariat
1 Easton Street
London WC1X 8DJ
United Kingdom

5 MAY 1994

         CHINA: HIGHEST RECORDED DEATH SENTENCE FIGURES
         PROBABLY FALL DRASTICALLY SHORT OF THE TRUTH
         SAYS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Amnesty International's death sentence figures for 1993
in China, published today, are the highest the
organization has ever recorded in one year, with at
least 2,564 people sentenced to death and more than
1,419 of them known to have been executed.

      "Even these figures probably fall drastically
short of the true number which is considered to be a
'state secret' by Chinese officials," Amnesty
International said.

      An indication of the scale of executions is that
in just one day, November 25, 1993, 140 people were
executed in 17 different cities around the central
Chinese province of Henan. The majority were sentenced
to death for violent crimes, but many were also
executed for non-violent offences such as embezzlement
or theft, which in other countries are punishable only
with fines or imprisonment.

      In the May 1994 edition of an illustrated
biannual log of death sentences in China, Amnesty
International lists the details known to the
organization of death sentences from July to December
1993. Among them are prisoners convicted of non-violent
crimes ranging from such things as accepting bribes to
selling fake chemical fertilizer.

      Amnesty International's figures for the past few
years show that the number of death sentences and
executions rise dramatically during anti-crime
campaigns. They also rise on selected key dates such as
June 26, International Day against Drug Abuse and
Trafficking, and in January, when the Chinese New Year
festival is approaching, as a warning to potential
offenders.

      The same pattern emerged in the run-up to October
1, China's National Day, which partly explains a
dramatic increase in Amnesty International's figures
for September 1993.

      Another factor accounting for the high number of
death sentences in September was the launch by the
authorities of a nationwide anti-corruption campaign in
the second half of August. As a result, dozens of
officials have recently been shot for crimes ranging
from bribe-taking to extortion and embezzlement.

      China stands out for the extent to which it uses
capital punishment. According to Amnesty
International's records in 1992, China accounted for 63
per cent of the world's executions that year. Yet there
is no evidence in China or elsewhere to show that
executions act as a deterrent and lead to less crime.

      Amnesty International reiterates its call made in
September 1993 that, in the absence of a political
decision to abolish the death penalty in China at
present, the authorities stop all executions until
legal procedures have been revised to ensure all
defendants have a fair trial.

      The organization also calls for an end to ill-
treatment of prisoners on death row, especially the use
of hand and feet shackles and the virtual incommunicado
detention of such prisoners. Amnesty International also
calls for a ban on the use of organs from executed
prisoners for organ transplants without their free
fully-informed consent.

      The human rights organization unconditionally
opposes the death penalty on the grounds that it
constitutes the ultimate form of cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment and violates the right to life as
proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.


283,  5-Mag-94, 16:14, -E----, 2720