The convictions of a prominent defense attorney and his associates were among the country’s top legal achievements last year, Chinese Supreme People’s Court Chief Justice Zhou Qiang (周強) said yesterday, highlighting a case that has been criticized by Western governments and rights groups.
In a report to the national legislature, Qiang also said that China, which is believed to execute more people than the rest of the world combined, gave the death penalty “to an extremely small number of criminals for extremely serious offenses” in the past 10 years.
The actual number of executions in China is a state secret. A 2007 decision that all death sentences must be reviewed by the nation’s Supreme People’s Court is believed to have reduced the number of executions dramatically.
PHOTO: AFP
Zhou praised courts for severely punishing crimes against state security and violent terrorism, and said the trend would continue in order “to resolutely safeguard the country’s political security.”
The only case of subverting state power he highlighted was that of Zhou Shifeng (周世峰), director of a law firm that used to be one of the country’s best-known advocates for human rights.
He was sentenced to seven years in prison in August last year for attempting to manipulate public opinion and harm national security.
Rights groups and Western governments including the US have urged China to release Zhou and other human rights advocates and lawyers detained in a sweeping crackdown that began in 2015. Critics say it is about the Chinese Communist Party silencing opponents.
The chief justice’s report did not say how many people were prosecuted or convicted of such offenses, or how many cases were handled.
US-based rights group Dui Hua estimates that about 2,400 people were executed in China in 2013, one-tenth the number in 1983.
It said that according to its sources, the number of annual executions remained largely unchanged in 2014 and 2015.
China typically hands out death sentences in cases of murder, rape and robbery, and for drug offenses.
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