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Beijing urged to review its death penalty system

Amnesty International yesterday urged China to accelerate reforms aimed at reducing use of the death penalty after a senior court official said new courts would be set up to review death sentences.

Last month Supreme People's Court (SPC) vice-president Wan E'xiang announced that three branch courts would be established to monitor death sentences, but said China was not about to abolish the practice.

Unnamed officials were quoted by state media as saying this could cut the number of executions by 30 percent.

China's law currently requires the Supreme Court to review every death sentence but amidst a rise in violent crimes some of this work was passed to high courts at the provincial level.

The provincial courts, however, review cases based on written reports instead of hearing the cases.

The government has been forced to act after a series of recent wrongful death sentences unsettled the public, which voiced concern about gross miscarriages of justice in a judicial system that goes largely unchecked.

Amnesty said China must go further.

"As a genuine step towards abolition, it must also be accompanied by other measures, including full transparency on the use of the death penalty nationwide and a reduction in the number of crimes punishable by the death penalty," it said in a statement.

The number of people executed in China remains a state secret although last year a senior member of the National People's Congress said around 10,000 people were executed annually, making China the world leader by far.

At least 26 people were executed ahead of the current National Day holidays.

According to London-based Amnesty, the death penalty remains applicable to around 68 crimes in China including non-violent offenses such as tax fraud, embezzling state property and accepting bribes.

The pressure group also voiced "deep concern" about reports that suggest organs are extracted from executed prisoners to be sold for transplantation.

Last month the Guardian newspaper reported that an unnamed Chinese cosmetics company was using skin harvested from the corpses of executed prisoners to develop beauty products.
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