Amnesty calls for Chinese death penalty moratorium

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AFP , BEIJING
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004,Page 5

Amnesty International yesterday called for a moratorium on the death penalty in China, saying the country's dysfunctional criminal justice system meant many innocent people were being executed.

The call in a new report entitled Executed according to law? comes a week after a senior Chinese legislator suggested China executes at least 10,000 people a year, about five times more than the rest of the world combined.

"In spite of positive developments in criminal procedure law, in practice the Chinese criminal justice system is in no condition to offer fair trials, impartiality, or justice," said the London-based rights group.

"It is unacceptable that thousands more people will be executed this year by a dysfunctional criminal justice system," it said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/03/23/2003107426