Amnesty International held a press conference on Tuesday, March 24, announcing the global death penalty statistics from January to December 2008. China carried out the most number of executions in the world, with over 1,718, accounting for 72 per cent of the total number of executions in the world. The real figure is believed to be much higher as statistics on death sentences and executions remain state secrets.

In 2008, at least 2,390 people were executed in 25 countries, while 8,864 were sentenced to death in 52 countries. Iran executed the second-largest number of people, followed by Saudi Arabia, the USA, Pakistan and Iraq.

The number of people executed in Asia is larger than the total number of people executed in the rest of the world: at least1,838 people, accounting for 76 per cent of the total figure in the report.

In China those facing capital charges do not receive fair trials. Failings include the lack of prompt access to lawyers, a lack of presumption of innocence, political interference in the judiciary and failure to exclude evidence extracted through torture. Although in May 2008 the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) have jointly issued a judicial interpretation, stating that lawyers can provide legal aid to those sentenced to death, criminal suspects are still denied access to legal representation when cases are related to “state secrets”. After the SPC took back the power to review all death sentences on 1 January 2007, authorities have been reporting a drop in the number of death sentences. According to a senior SPC official, the SPC overturned about 15 per cent of the death sentences handed down by high courts in the first half of 2008. However, statistics on death sentences and executions remain state secrets and it is impossible for external observers to verify this claim.

Amnesty International is particularly concerned with people from Hong Kong being sentenced to death in mainland China, as well as the wide variety of crimes which could lead to death penalty in the mainland. According to statistics from the Joint Committee for the Abolition of Death Penalty in Hong Kong, from 1998 to 2008, at least 123 Hong Kongers involved in 79 cases received death sentences and suspended death sentences, in which 56 have already been executed.  We have invited the sister of Zhuo Xiaojun, a Hong Konger executed in the mainland in December 2008, to the press conference. She shared the experience of her brother’s execution after spending 20 years in Chinese prison. She also talked about how her brother was tortured during police interrogation, the unfairness of the judiciary, the lack of evidence and other problems Zhuo Xiaojun’s family and the lawyer identified in his case.

Death penalty is a violation of the right to life and is a form of cruel and degrading treatment. Abolition of death penalty is a global trend. The United Nations’ General Assembly has twice adopted a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in 2007 and 2008 respectively. In so doing clearly states that the abolition of death penalty is a reflection of human rights values upheld by civilised society. Even though more countries supported the moratorium in 2008 than the year before, industrialized countries like the USA and Japan, as well as China which economy is rising rapidly still retain death penalty.

5) Provide a time-table of concrete reforms relating to the death penalty, including declaration of a moratorium of executions in line with UN resolutions on the moratorium on the use of death penalty

Click here to see full report titled: Death Sentence & Executions 2008 (ACT 50/003/2009) March 24, 2009  

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