Report: China still harvesting organs from prisoners at a massive scale

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguO6TiitVFRqWUA4PEFBQJgwpcLkiMRi1e226ibCyz8otTwUOvaX9jit6nMGrN9CEI-Sm-LP5LLsNeQFOzawZvc0cxxOI7EG01cgjCcewrzEz7xnjot2v3Gcq2wIFZuI1eS61xJE5BejA/s1600/China-death-penalty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Chinese police officers rehearsing execution procedures" border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguO6TiitVFRqWUA4PEFBQJgwpcLkiMRi1e226ibCyz8otTwUOvaX9jit6nMGrN9CEI-Sm-LP5LLsNeQFOzawZvc0cxxOI7EG01cgjCcewrzEz7xnjot2v3Gcq2wIFZuI1eS61xJE5BejA/s400/China-death-penalty.jpg" title="Chinese police officers rehearsing execution procedures" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chinese police officers rehearsing execution procedures</td></tr></tbody></table>(CNN) A new report claims that China is still engaged in the widespread and <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/search/label/Transplants" target="_blank">systematic harvesting of organs from prisoners</a>, and says that people whose views conflict with the ruling Chinese Communist Party are being murdered for their organs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The report -- by former Canadian lawmaker David Kilgour, human rights lawyer David Matas, and journalist Ethan Gutmann -- collates publicly reported figures from hospitals across China to show what they claim is a massive discrepancy between official figures for the number of transplants carried out throughout the country.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They blame the Chinese government, the Communist Party, the health system, doctors and hospitals for being complicit.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The (Communist Party) says the total number of legal transplants is about 10,000 per year. But we can easily surpass the official Chinese figure just by looking at the two or three biggest hospitals," Matas said in a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The report estimates that 60,000 to 100,000 organs are transplanted each year in Chinese hospitals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the report, that gap is made up of executed prisoners, many of them prisoners of conscience locked up for their religious or political beliefs. China does not report its total number of executions, which it regards as a secret.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The report's findings stand in stark contrast to Beijing's claim that, since the beginning of 2015, China has moved from almost completely relying on organs from prisoners to the "largest voluntary organ donation system in Asia."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At a regular press conference Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China has "strict laws and regulations on this issue."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"As for the testimony and the published report, I want to say that such stories about forced organ harvesting in China are imaginary and baseless -- they don't have any factual foundation," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The National Health and Family Planning Commission, which oversees organ donations in China, did not respond to a request for comment for this piece.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Secret transplants</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the report, thousands of people are being executed in China in secret and their organs harvested for use in transplant operations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So who is being killed? The authors say mainly imprisoned religious and ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, Tibetans, underground Christians, and practitioners of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While much of China's organ transplant system is kept secret, official figures show that 2,766 volunteers donated organs in 2015, with 7,785 large organs acquired.<br /><br />According to Amnesty International, "tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arbitrarily detained" since the government launched a crackdown on the practice in 1999.<br /><br />China regards Falun Gong as a "cult" and claims followers engage in "anti-China political activities."<br /><br />"The government considers Falun Gong a threat to its power, and has detained, imprisoned and tortured its followers," says Maya Wang, China researcher for Human Rights Watch.<br /><br />The report says detained Falun Gong practitioners were forced to have blood tests and medical exams. Those test results were placed in a database of living organ sources so quick organ matches could be made, the authors claim.<br /><br />This massive supply of organs served to benefit hospitals and doctors, making for an ever growing industry.</div><br /><b><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/23/asia/china-organ-harvesting/index.html" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: CNN, James Griffiths, June 23, 2016<br /><br /><div><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div>

Asia China Transplants Report: China still harvesting organs from prisoners at a massive scale

Chinese police officers rehearsing execution procedures (CNN) A new report claims that China is still engaged in the widespread and systemat...

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China: Mother's Fight to Exonerate Executed Son Highlights Gaping Holes in Justice System

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNxLUWJ0LaUXyNfudRN0WUsZs2KhVuafr-fTEuSwiX4wl1cvrYswlyYsLuCi9n9S7gkmOQT2BXV-cBxa3SKHz_AIAfYpN0BHWMmK4P83JzsryTr27ikqkXvA7xKhytfrUP3jXsWqnrRtM/s1600/Nie+Shubin+%2528file+photo%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nie Shubin, wrongfully executed at age 20" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNxLUWJ0LaUXyNfudRN0WUsZs2KhVuafr-fTEuSwiX4wl1cvrYswlyYsLuCi9n9S7gkmOQT2BXV-cBxa3SKHz_AIAfYpN0BHWMmK4P83JzsryTr27ikqkXvA7xKhytfrUP3jXsWqnrRtM/s400/Nie+Shubin+%2528file+photo%2529.jpg" title="Nie Shubin, wrongfully executed at age 20" width="372" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nie Shubin, wrongfully executed at age 20</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"Invisible forces" in police have delayed a retrial for Nie Shubin after fresh evidence, suggesting his innocence, emerged, says former journalist</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">More than 2 decades after a young man in the northern province of Hebei was executed for the alleged rape and murder of a woman, his mother is anxiously awaiting a retrial to clear his name.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zhang Huanzhi's only son, <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/search/label/Nie%20Shubin" target="_blank">Nie Shubin</a>, was executed in 1995 - when he was 20 - for raping and killing a woman in a cornfield near Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital. A decade later, another man arrested for a separate crime, confessed to the murder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zhang had fought for years after this fresh evidence emerged to exonerate her son, but she kept on hitting a wall. The case is back in the public spotlight after the country's highest court, the Supreme People's Court, on June 6 ordered a court in the eastern province of Shandong to review the 1995 ruling, saying evidence that lead to his death sentence were "unreliable and incomplete."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zhang's dogged pursuit, lodging repeated appeals at courts in her home province Hebei and in Beijing, has helped turn Nie's case into an example of the flaws in the Chinese criminal justice system, including the use of torture, lack of due process and lax review of death sentences.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Nie's is not the only incident of a possible miscarriage of justice reported in recent years. In February, a man from the eastern province of Zhejiang, Chen Man, convicted of arson and murder, was allowed to walk free after languishing in prison for 23 years when his sentence was overturned due to lack of evidence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In late 2014, a court in Inner Mongolia said an 18-year-old killed by firing squad in 1996 for alleged rape and murder, was innocent. The Inner Mongolia Higher People's Court said the defendant, Huugjilt, was wrongfully convicted after being tortured into making a confession.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nie's case had also galvanized the legal community, media and the public to scrutinize the gaping holes in the country's justice system. "There is no doubt Nie will be exonerated soon," said Ma Yulong, a former reporter at Dahe Daily, a newspaper in the central province of Henan, who has followed Nie's case starting in 2005.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nie's retrial can help in some measure to restore public faith in China's legal system, said Li Shuting, the lawyer representing his family.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Quest for Justice</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Shandong High Court in-charge of reviewing the case said the evidence on which the original verdict was based was incomplete because many questions have gone unanswered, such as the exact time the crime was committed and the weapon used for the murder. However, the court has not announced a date for a retrial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nie was sentenced for premeditated rape and murder on March 15, 1995 by the intermediate court in Shijiazhuang, after a closed-door trial, state media reports show. He was executed a month later.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2005, another suspect named Wang Shujin, arrested for a similar crime, confessed to raping and killing several women, one of whom turned out to be the victim in Nie's case. Ma was the 1st to break the news, which attracted wide public attention to the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After this fresh evidence emerged, Liu Jinguo, the head of the party's provincial Political and Legal Affairs Committee at the time, who oversaw the security and legal systems in Hebei, set up a special team to reopen Nie's case and ordered the results to be published within one month, Ma told Caixin on June 14.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmHdORZ6-js4-Iinb2s_c374KhN5jWym715boa1OqIFwQdClNE00Uc1zUq1F3ZegEZEGTffjz5vJkaQ28VSkWPPDGCmRUpr_Q6b3Z_3s0Jy5ZtWRYItjWwI3YzP99MnRCI0aeD7bdohsVS/s1600/execution+china.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A Chinese police officer lights an inmate's last cigarette minutes before his execution." border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmHdORZ6-js4-Iinb2s_c374KhN5jWym715boa1OqIFwQdClNE00Uc1zUq1F3ZegEZEGTffjz5vJkaQ28VSkWPPDGCmRUpr_Q6b3Z_3s0Jy5ZtWRYItjWwI3YzP99MnRCI0aeD7bdohsVS/s400/execution+china.jpg" title="A Chinese police officer lights an inmate's last cigarette minutes before his execution." width="258" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Chinese police officer lights an inmate's last<br />cigarette minutes before his execution.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Liu's order gave Nie's family a glimmer of hope, but it vanished quickly. The investigation stalled when Liu was promoted shortly afterwards to vice minister of public security in Beijing, said Ma.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">From then on, Zhang Huanzhi has made countless trips to courts in Hebei and Beijing, to appeal her son's case, but she was turned down by officials who said her documents were incomplete.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It wasn't until July 2007, when the Supreme Court in Beijing accepted Zhang's appeal and ordered the Hebei High Court to review the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But this court never carried out the review. "We tried every means possible to get a retrial, but they were all in vain," said Li.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In March 2007, the other suspect, Wang, received the death penalty for 4 counts of murder and rape. But this did not include the victim in Nie's case, although Wang admitted to the crime. In a twist of fate, Wang even appealed his verdict and insisted that he had killed the woman Nie was charged with murdering. But his appeal was turned down by the Hebei court in 2013.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wang is now on death row, waiting for the Supreme Court to review his sentence, but the process has been delayed due to his connection to Nie's case, Li said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ma said he had learned from sources in the Hebei public security system that officials had tortured Wang, forcing him to recant his confession connected to the 1994 murder in Shijiazhuang before the 2nd trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are "invisible" forces in Hebei's police and legal system that have resisted the reopening of Nie's case, said Ma.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Fresh Hope</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In December 2014, the Supreme Court ordered a high court in another province Shandong to re-examine the files of Nie's case. The Supreme Court's June decision for a retrial, which comes after four delays, had rekindled the family's hopes to have Nie exonerated.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Li told Caixin that there were many holes in the evidence presented including Nie's testimony, the murder weapon used and even the exact date of his execution. He has been collecting evidence that show Nie was tortured while in custody and highlight deficiencies in due process when handling the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The case "is obviously a wrongful conviction with little complexity, but it has taken more than ten years to get a retrial due to delays by officials in Hebei," said Li.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Police offices' over reliance on harsh interrogation techniques to elicit confessions from suspects in criminal investigation cases have led to many wrongful convictions, said Li. Some investigators and officials rush to close a case to secure bonuses and promotion, he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fundamentally, "the lack of independence of the judicial system had led to the miscarriage of justice," said the former journalist Ma. "Without further legal reform, there will be other cases like this in future."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: caixin.com, June 18, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

China Exoneration False confessions Innocence Nie Shubin Police Posthumous Torture China: Mother's Fight to Exonerate Executed Son Highlights Gaping Holes in Justice System

Nie Shubin, wrongfully executed at age 20 "Invisible forces" in police have delayed a retrial for Nie Shubin after fresh evidence,...

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China: Man who killed 6 people during a shooting spree in Shanghai executed

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd_4jNIwCBsE7lyXmMcS-yjY5P3BM4RC1mQ6dD6kkZ0yiOzTrq801Bdpc5fGyQ9U-mf_PHmDKb-dsLa9K6BN6xut4GCjTTMt33uh7IugUnJp8xrd2TG77odcFli-X75Dy22ryG8m0PXEY/s1600/Fan+Jieming.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Fan Jieming" border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd_4jNIwCBsE7lyXmMcS-yjY5P3BM4RC1mQ6dD6kkZ0yiOzTrq801Bdpc5fGyQ9U-mf_PHmDKb-dsLa9K6BN6xut4GCjTTMt33uh7IugUnJp8xrd2TG77odcFli-X75Dy22ryG8m0PXEY/s400/Fan+Jieming.jpg" title="Fan Jieming" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fan Jieming</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">A man who killed six people and injured four others with guns and an iron pipe in Shanghai three years ago has been executed, a local court said on Tuesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fan Jieming, 65, was sentenced to death by Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court for murder, robbery, and forcible seizure, illegal purchase and possession of guns last July.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the court, Fan had a dispute at a chemical factory in the city's Baoshan District on June 22, 2013, before beating a colleague to death there with an iron pipe.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He then took a hunting rifle from his dormitory and asked a driver to take him to another district. He killed the driver on the way and took the vehicle.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At a nearby military barracks Fan killed a guard and took his gun. He then returned to the plant and shot dead another three people.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fan also seriously injured three people and slightly injured another. He was captured by police the same day and put on trial in January, 2014.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Xinhua, June 15, 2016</div><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="font-size: large;">Man who killed six executed</span></b><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A man who killed 6 people, including a soldier, and injured 4 others in Shanghai in 2013, has been executed by the Shanghai No.2 Intermediate People's Court, the court announced today.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fan Jieming, 65, was convicted of murder and robbery, and illegal possession of guns, was given the death penalty in July last year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 6 who died during the shooting spree included 4 of Fan's colleagues, with whom he had disputes over company matters, an unlicensed taxi driver, a military sentinel from whom he stole the gun.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Shanghai Daily, June 15, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div></div></div>

Asia China China: Man who killed 6 people during a shooting spree in Shanghai executed

Fan Jieming A man who killed six people and injured four others with guns and an iron pipe in Shanghai three years ago has been executed, a ...

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China's SC orders retrial of Nie Shubin, convicted of rape & murder and executed 21 years ago

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTv8GbC5OAlUSUiwMu3giO6RmR1pwbZQ-nI7hRf_Hbw79YmHcaw96E8ift4B7UXI3ctEWUaf0H-0xD514blk5_DrNWw14wq7fUpq3FjJowdbMI4hboSr6xVodUXWxOgcgrIGvDrYC7pXk/s1600/Nie+Shubin+%2528file+photo%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nie Shubin (file photo)" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTv8GbC5OAlUSUiwMu3giO6RmR1pwbZQ-nI7hRf_Hbw79YmHcaw96E8ift4B7UXI3ctEWUaf0H-0xD514blk5_DrNWw14wq7fUpq3FjJowdbMI4hboSr6xVodUXWxOgcgrIGvDrYC7pXk/s320/Nie+Shubin+%2528file+photo%2529.jpg" title="Nie Shubin (file photo)" width="298" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nie Shubin (file photo)</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The Supreme People's Court has ordered a retrial of a man executed 21 years ago, according to Xinhua News Agency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/search/label/Nie%20Shubin" target="_blank">Nie Shubin</a>, a worker in Shijiazhuang, northern China's Hebei Province, was put to death in April 1995 when he was 20 years old for allegedly raping and killing a woman in a cornfield.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nie was convicted of intentional rape and murder on March 15, 1995 by the intermediate people’s court in Shijiazhuang. In addition to having all of his political rights taken away for both crimes he was given a death sentence. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In December 2014, the Supreme People’s Court, in accordance with a request from the Higher People's Court of Hebei Province and in the spirit of related laws, appointed the Higher People's Court of Shandong Province to conduct a review of the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Accordingly a panel of five judges conducted in depth document review with other parties along with proper verification of the autopsy of the victim to see whether or not there were bone fractures. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Several trips were made to Hebei etc. to conduct investigations and talk with the appellee and their lawyer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The new panel decided that there was not enough evidence to prove Nie Shubin was guilty, with many doubts in the aspects of time and tools used in the crime as well as causes of death. It is not possible to rule out that perhaps another person did the crime. Accordingly, they suggested a re-trial with affiliated parties.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Supreme People's Court agreed with their opinion and in compliance with article 242 and 243 of the People’s Republic of China criminal procedural law the case is to be brought into reconsideration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Supreme People's Court will organize a collegiate bench and maintain a just attitude and conduct a hearing based on the facts and criterion of law, and a verification letter of the re-hearing was presented to Nie Shubin’s mother. Results will be presented to the public in a timely manner. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/0608/c98649-9069859.html" target="_blank">People's Daily Online</a>, June 8, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">China orders retrial of murder case of man executed 21 years ago</span></b></div><br />More than 2 decades after a young Chinese man's execution, the country's supreme court on Wednesday informed his mother of a new trial, shining a spotlight on an old murder case viewed by many as a symbol of the fatal flaws in China's criminal justice system.<br /><br />Calling the evidence for the conviction and sentencing in 1995 of 20-year-old Nie Shubin "unreliable and incomplete," the Supreme People's Court ordered the case to be retried "openly and fairly" - but did not give a trial date.<br /><br />The court statement alluded to the biggest twist in the case: Another man later confessed to the crimes -- raping and killing a woman -- that Nie was executed for.<br /><br />"Major questions exist in terms of when and how the defendant allegedly committed the crimes as well as how the victim died," it said. "The possibility that another person may have committed the crimes cannot be ruled out."<br /><br /><b>A mother's fight for her son</b><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvOJILrPpSQ1n_DsjiT5ZtqqHoOo47073SgN8uhwIIcCVavFCRHLPXROGm8PEa6Chiufl3RVVtea_2kLzAuTk9vCvctP8w0X8vTveZzSjtiZyASYogtngizuNxbhIQG5lXmaGll4s7Paw/s1600/Nie+Shubin%25E2%2580%2599s+mother+visits+his+grave+and+makes+offerings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nie Shubin’s mother visits his grave and makes offerings" border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvOJILrPpSQ1n_DsjiT5ZtqqHoOo47073SgN8uhwIIcCVavFCRHLPXROGm8PEa6Chiufl3RVVtea_2kLzAuTk9vCvctP8w0X8vTveZzSjtiZyASYogtngizuNxbhIQG5lXmaGll4s7Paw/s400/Nie+Shubin%25E2%2580%2599s+mother+visits+his+grave+and+makes+offerings.jpg" title="Nie Shubin’s mother visits his grave and makes offerings" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nie Shubin’s mother visits his grave and makes offerings.</td></tr></tbody></table>"I'm very excited about the development," Zhang Huanzhi, Nie's 72-year-old mother, told CNN by phone Thursday. "I'll visit his grave soon to tell him that Mom's efforts all these years weren't in vain -- and justice will prevail in your case."<br /><br />When CNN last met Zhang in her small village in 2011, the farmer from Hebei Province was still fighting in earnest to exonerate her son, making countless journeys to the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang -- some 320 kilometers (200 miles) southwest of Beijing.<br /><br />"I bike to the closest bus stop and then take a 2-hour ride to the provincial high court," said Zhang back then. "As long as I can still move, I'm not giving up."<br /><br />Zhang goes to court whenever she catches a break between tending the cornfield and feeding her livestock.<br /><br />Zhang hopes the government would do whatever it takes to protect other families from the kind of anguish she has suffered.<br /><br />Nie Shubin was executed in 1995 for raping and killing a woman. A decade later, another man confessed to the same crimes.<br /><br />Zhang hopes the government would do whatever it takes to protect other families from the kind of anguish she has suffered.<br /><br />Many have viewed Zhang's plight -- and the case involving her only son -- as an egregious example of widespread police torture, deficient due process and lax review of death sentences.<br /><br />For years, Zhang kept hitting a wall and even the People's Daily -- the official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party -- ran a scathing commentary in September 2011 that asked: "In a case where someone was clearly wronged, why has it been so difficult to make it right?"<br /><br />"Rehabilitation means little to the dead, but it means a lot to his surviving family and all other citizens," it said. "We can no longer afford to let Nie's case drag on."<br /><br />Zhang was dealt with a blow in 2013 when the Hebei high court ruled that, despite his confession, a man named Wang Shujin was not the perpetrator in the Nie case.<br /><br />Hopes were rekindled when the supreme court the following year ordered the high court in another province to review the case.<br /><br />Zhang's lawyers were allowed to examine the case files last year, and said they discovered multiple forged signatures, and evidence of provincial authorities in Hebei pressuring Wang to recant his confession through mental and physical abuses.<br /><br />China has long insisted it is ruled by law, stressing that its judicial system bans evidence obtained through torture and increasingly limits the death penalty.<br /><br />Still, it executes more people than all other countries of the world combined. Human rights group Amnesty International estimates the figure -- considered a state secret -- to be in the thousands every year.<br /><br />Many experts also argue that, with the ruling Communist leadership more concerned about maintaining social stability, ordinary citizens and lawyers alike face a repressive legal environment in which criminal suspects do not enjoy the right to silence.<br /><br /><b>Persistence pays off</b><br /><br />Zhang's refusal to stay quiet, fortunately, has finally made a difference in Nie's case.<br /><br />She now seals her most treasured possessions in a plastic bag: 2 old photos and several legal documents.<br /><br />"He was about 19 and it was taken right here in our courtyard," she told CNN 5 years ago, pointing to the fading color prints of her shy stuttering son beaming for the camera.<br /><br />Nie was taken into custody not long after the photos were taken and would never see his mother again.<br /><br />Zhang said local police, during their several visits to question the family and search the house, never told her why they had detained her son. Court documents cited "tips from local residents" but did not elaborate.<br /><br />Authorities tried Nie behind closed doors and barred the parents from the courtroom, but Nie told a lawyer hired by his family that he was beaten into a confession on his 6th day in jail.<br /><br /><b>Lone quest for justice</b><br /><br />7 months after he was first detained, the government executed Nie -- without notifying his parents.<br /><br />After the initial shock, Zhang had to endure more agony to locate her son's remains and deal with a failed suicide attempt and subsequent half-paralysis of her husband, who was devastated by Nie's execution.<br /><br />Living off her husband's meager monthly pension, Zhang has learned to take care of the family by herself.<br /><br />Carefully laying the contents from her plastic bag on a table, Zhang described in 2011 each legal document as she recounted her 6-year lone quest for justice: a copy of the verdict against Nie that detailed his "crimes;" a 2007 letter from the Supreme People's Court in Beijing instructing the Hebei high court to "process" her appeal; and most importantly, a printout of a written statement by Wang's lawyer on his client's confession.<br /><br />"The cold reality doesn't offer us ordinary people much hope -- so why do I keep pursuing?" Zhang asked back then.<br /><br />"I don't want to hold anyone responsible, I don't want government compensation, and I don't want the judge to bring back my son alive -- but one thing I must have is his innocence."<br /><br />Source: CNN, June 9, 2016<br /><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Asia China Exoneration Innocence Nie Shubin Posthumous Torture China's SC orders retrial of Nie Shubin, convicted of rape & murder and executed 21 years ago

Nie Shubin (file photo) The Supreme People's Court has ordered a retrial of a man executed 21 years ago, according to Xinhua News Agency...

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Pakistan hangings pass 400

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4pUIByWUe8G-kSfpS1horpKEmCVRhOv9hYIe1NiGMQbdC1Z438fvkTqHC3ZbN9Qrn1uqh3-bS3U_lMyGEBVXkv1_C5GDjqlVmljugVPA8tZwZ38W0UQWtd7OjGVDGlHUITz6PypmGuKA/s1600/Death+Penalty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4pUIByWUe8G-kSfpS1horpKEmCVRhOv9hYIe1NiGMQbdC1Z438fvkTqHC3ZbN9Qrn1uqh3-bS3U_lMyGEBVXkv1_C5GDjqlVmljugVPA8tZwZ38W0UQWtd7OjGVDGlHUITz6PypmGuKA/s400/Death+Penalty.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pakistan has executed over 400 people since resuming hangings in December 2014, according to new research from international human rights organisation Reprieve.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The country has become one of the world’s most prolific executioners since lifting a moratorium on hangings which had been in place for several years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to publicly-available data analyzed by Reprieve, June has seen four hangings so far, bringing the total since the lifting of the moratorium to 404 – although the figure could be higher as not all executions in the country are necessarily reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">72 of those hangings have taken place in 2016, which means that Pakistan likely holds its position in the world’s top five executioners for the year so far - behind China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, but ahead of the USA. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pakistan has seen a number of controversial death penalty cases recently. Abdul Basit, a paralysed prisoner who needs to use a wheelchair, continues to be held under sentence of death despite concerns that there is no way to execute him that would not carry a high risk of prolonged suffering. He recently told his lawyers that, during a previous attempt to hang him, the prison authorities had built a slope or ramp up to the gallows in order to take him to be hanged in his wheelchair.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also facing potential imminent execution is Muhammad Anwar, despite his having been arrested as a child. His case is currently before Pakistan’s Supreme Court, as both Pakistani and international law prohibit the execution of people arrested for alleged offences which took place when they were under 18.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Commenting, Maya Foa, Director of Reprieve’s Death Penalty Team said: “That Pakistan has gone from a non-executing state to executing over 400 people in little over 18 months is truly shocking. The Pakistani Government seems indifferent to the plight of the many prisoners who should not even be on death row – those arrested as children, or suffering from severe physical or mental illnesses. They need to put a halt to all executions until a full review of this chaotic capital punishment system can be carried out.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reprieve estimates that Pakistan’s current rate of execution for 2016 so far means it maintains its place in the world’s top five executioners, according to available figures. Reprieve is yet to finalise estimates for Saudi Arabia and Iran, but the former is believed to have executed close to 100 people, and the latter 195 (according to <a href="http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/publications/human-rights-data/chart-of-executions/1000000620-ihrdc-chart-of-executions-by-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-2016.html" target="_blank">Iran Human Rights</a>), in 2016 so far. Due to state secrecy, figures are unavailable for China but guesswork by human rights organizations tends to put them in the thousands. According to the <a href="http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/execution-list-2016" target="_blank">Death Penalty Information Centre</a> (DPIC), US executions for 2016 so far total 14. Due to the conflict in Iraq, it is extremely difficult to determine the use of the death penalty there, but according to Cornell Law School’s ‘<a href="http://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/country-search-post.cfm?country=iraq" target="_blank">Death Penalty Worldwide</a>’ site, there have been 22 executions confirmed for 2016.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Reprieve, June 7, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span>

Abdul Basit China Disabled inmate Iran Iraq Juvenile offenders Pakistan Saudi Arabia USA Pakistan hangings pass 400

Pakistan has executed over 400 people since resuming hangings in December 2014, according to new research from international human rights or...

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