In 2007, China’s highest court ruled that it alone could impose the death penalty upon recommendation of lower courts. Every year, China executes 90 per cent of all death sentences in the world.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – China’s Supreme People’s Court has issued new guidelines on the use of the death penalty, limiting its application, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. China’s top judges ruled that criminal cases must be handled with “justice tempered with mercy”, so that the death penalty is reserved for a small number of criminals.

Every year, China alone executes 90 per cent of all capital offenders in the world. In 2008, official sources indicated that 4,000 people were sentenced to death and 1,770 executions took place.

Human rights groups claim that the actual number is twice that much. This was confirmed in 2006 by Chen Zhonglin, a delegate to the National People’s Congress, who said that China executed about “10,000 people” a year, even though it is Beijing’s policy to consider the actual figure as a state secret.

According to Chinese law, the death penalty is imposed for “the most serious crimes”, including corruption and many non-violent crimes.

Once arrested, an accused cannot expect to receive legal assistance right away. That occurs only after police interrogation. Even then, legal counsel might still be denied or limited.

Torture is often used in early interrogations to extract a confession, which can be entered in a court of law as evidence to sentence people to death.

Unlike international legal standards, there is no presumption of innocence in Chinese law.

The government has deplored the high number of death penalties, but it is the Supreme Court that has acted on the issue. In 2007, it ruled the death penalty was its sole preserve. Since then, lower courts have had to get the green light from Beijing before sending the presumed guilty to the gallows.

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