The four men named above were sentenced to death on 14 July, convicted of the murder of a German businessman and his family. Once sentences are confirmed and any appeals rejected, executions can take place within hours. Appeals are rarely successful. It is not known if the four will appeal.

Amnesty International is also concerned about reports that one of the defendants, Liu Guangyuan, may only be 17 years old and so not eligible to be sentenced to death. His mother is claiming that she had inflated his age some time ago in order to gain a grant of land. It is not clear whether this claim is being investigated.

Jürgen Pfrang, deputy manager of a joint Sino-German car works in Nanjing, was stabbed to death with his wife Petra Pfrang, their daughter Sandra Melanie (aged 14) and their son Thorsten (12), allegedly as they entered their villa in Nanjing. Three of the defendants were found in the villa and the fourth was found as he attempted to flee the area. Reportedly the defendants had entered the villa to rob it.

The case attracted great media interest within China as well as in Germany because of the brutality of the stabbings and the fact that the victims were foreign nationals. The chief judge in the case, at Nanjing city Intermediate People's Court, has been quoted in the press as saying that the killings were especially cruel, suggesting that any appeal is unlikely to result in a reduction of sentence. According to the German news agency dpa, the judge has confirmed that he received a letter from the victims' relatives in which they appeal to him not to pass death sentences.

There were also reports that Jürgen Pfrang had been about to expose financial irregularities within the company, and a rumour that the four defendants were hit-men. The trial judges reportedly found no evidence to support this rumour. Amnesty International is also concerned that the sentencing of the four may well have been influenced by the fact that the victims were foreign nationals following the media outcry over the stabbings and the impact of these among the expatriate community in China.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

While acknowledging the right and duty of states to bring to justice those responsible for violent crimes, Amnesty International at the same time opposes the death penalty in all cases as a violation of the right to life and the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as proclaimed in the universal declaration of human rights. Amnesty International works for the abolition of the death penalty throughout the world and for clemency in all cases where executions are feared to be imminent, regardless of the nature of the crime for which a prisoner has been convicted.

The death penalty continues to be used extensively, arbitrarily, and frequently as a result of political interference. There are often mass executions during major events or on public holidays in China, such as 1 January and the Chinese New Year. Execution is by shooting or lethal injection.

Only a fraction of death sentences and executions carried out in the country are publicly reported. In 1998 alone, based on the incomplete public reports, Amnesty International recorded 2,701 death sentences and 1,769 confirmed executions. From 1990 to the end of 1998, Amnesty International recorded more than 25,400 death sentences and 16,600 executions. These statistics are believed to fall far short of the real figures, but even based on this limited record China executes many more people than the rest of the world put together. A revision to the Criminal Code in March 1997 confirmed the increasing scope for the use of the death penalty.

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