PENA MORTE: CINA, 17 ESECUZIONI CON INIEZIONE IN UN GIORNO

 PECHINO, 4 NOV - Diciassette persone sono state messe a morte il 1 novembre in una citta' della CINA centrale, con un'iniezione letale, nell'ambito di una campagna contro la criminalita', intensificata alla vigilia della convocazione del 16/o Congresso del Partito comunista cinese.

Secondo l'agenzia semiufficiale 'Notizie cinesi', che rende note le esecuzioni condotte a Pingdingshan, nella regione dello Henan, l'iniezione letale e' sempre piu' frequentemente utilizzata in CINA ed ''e' un grande passo avanti per l'edificazione di un sistema piu' civile''.   Le esecuzioni hanno avuto luogo dopo che la sentenza era stata annunciata ad un raduno pubblico.

Il metodo piu' comune per l'esecuzione della sentenza capitale  e' in CINA una pallottola sparata nella nuca dei condannato, inginocchiato con le spalle al boia, la testa china e una benda sugli occhi.  Non ci sono dati ufficiali sulle condanne a morte. Secondo l'organizzazione per i diritti umani Amnesty International, nel 2001 sono state contate 2.468 esecuzioni, ma la cifra e'  ''molto piu' alta''. 

Amnesty: China Executed 46 People Ahead of Congress

Nov 5 2002

 BEIJING  - China executed 46 people in just two days last week following calls to intensify the fight against crime ahead of a pivotal Communist Party Congress, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

 Twenty-nine people were executed in the southwest city of Chongqing and on southern island of Hainan last Wednesday while 17 were executed in the town of Pingdingshan in the central province of Henan two days later, Amnesty said in statement.

 No immediate comment was available from Chinese officials. The executions followed recent calls by the authorities to intensify a national "Strike Hard" anti-crime campaign that began in April 2001, Amnesty said.

 Reports of death sentences and executions have peppered state media in recent months ahead of the congress, due to introduce a younger line-up of Chinese leaders after it begins Friday.

 This week, a court in the northeastern city of Changchun sentenced to death or prison 36 members of a gang for murder and other crimes, Xinhua reported on its Web site www.xinhuanet.com. The sentences were handed down after the gang terrorized the city of Jiutai in the northeastern province of Jilin, where they killed one person, injured others and stole more than $93,000, it said.

 Battling crime has been a major theme for the Communist Party which has shamed or sentenced several senior officials for corruption against a backdrop of growing resentment of political privileges.

 Amnesty appealed to the Chinese government to end the death penalty in the world's most populous country, where it said 2,468 people were executed last year.

 China has executed more people than the rest of the world combined in recent years, mostly with a bullet to the back of the head, human rights groups say.

 State media have reported plans to spread the use of lethal injection to execute people as a "civilized way of law enforcement."