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Prisoners paraded on Chinese TV before execution
Four South-East Asian men have been paraded on live television in China before being put to death for murder.
Burmese drug boss Naw Kham was interviewed on China Central Television as one of his final acts, expressing sorrow for his crimes.
All four men were pictured tied and chained at the ankles, before being executed by lethal injection last night in the south-western Chinese city of Kunming.
The four men, along with two other accused, admitted intentional homicide, drug trafficking, kidnapping and hijacking at their trial last year, state news agency Xinhua said, over a raid on two Chinese riverboats in the Mekong River in October 2011.
Xinhua described Naw Kham as "the boss of the largest armed drug trafficking gang" on the Mekong, which flows through China, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The 2011 incident sparked outrage in China, where photographs of the gagged and blindfolded victims circulated online, and the progress of the case has been given prominent coverage in state media.
In the live broadcast Kham, 43, smiled slightly before grimacing as a restraining rope was tied around him in the prison in Kunming, in the southern province of Yunnan.
He then emerged into bright sunlight and a bank of television cameras, before being put into a van and driven away.
CCTV then cut to interviews with police officials outside the prison before returning to a studio discussion on the case.
Before the conclusion of the program, which ran for almost two hours, a statement on the Yunnan provincial security bureau's website said all four had been executed by lethal injection.
Interviewed by CCTV earlier this week, Kham said: "I miss my mother... I hope my children will not follow my example. I wish them a good future and hope they will study hard."
Shown a picture of the families of the dead, he said: "I have sent money to the relatives of the victims. Their pains are just like mine, I have children, I want to be with them when I get old."
Prominent human rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan said the broadcast violated China's criminal procedure law.
"This provision says that criminals facing the death penalty cannot be put on public display," he said.
Mr Liu added the broadcast also violated a law by the Supreme People's Court that a "person's dignity should never be insulted".
Chinese television used to show such scenes regularly but largely stopped almost two decades ago, though they still crop up occasionally on provincial channels.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-01/china-prisoners-paraded-on-tv-before-execution/4548988
Four South-East Asian men have been paraded on live television in China before being put to death for murder.
Burmese drug boss Naw Kham was interviewed on China Central Television as one of his final acts, expressing sorrow for his crimes.
All four men were pictured tied and chained at the ankles, before being executed by lethal injection last night in the south-western Chinese city of Kunming.
The four men, along with two other accused, admitted intentional homicide, drug trafficking, kidnapping and hijacking at their trial last year, state news agency Xinhua said, over a raid on two Chinese riverboats in the Mekong River in October 2011.
Xinhua described Naw Kham as "the boss of the largest armed drug trafficking gang" on the Mekong, which flows through China, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The 2011 incident sparked outrage in China, where photographs of the gagged and blindfolded victims circulated online, and the progress of the case has been given prominent coverage in state media.
In the live broadcast Kham, 43, smiled slightly before grimacing as a restraining rope was tied around him in the prison in Kunming, in the southern province of Yunnan.
He then emerged into bright sunlight and a bank of television cameras, before being put into a van and driven away.
CCTV then cut to interviews with police officials outside the prison before returning to a studio discussion on the case.
Before the conclusion of the program, which ran for almost two hours, a statement on the Yunnan provincial security bureau's website said all four had been executed by lethal injection.
Interviewed by CCTV earlier this week, Kham said: "I miss my mother... I hope my children will not follow my example. I wish them a good future and hope they will study hard."
Shown a picture of the families of the dead, he said: "I have sent money to the relatives of the victims. Their pains are just like mine, I have children, I want to be with them when I get old."
Prominent human rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan said the broadcast violated China's criminal procedure law.
"This provision says that criminals facing the death penalty cannot be put on public display," he said.
Mr Liu added the broadcast also violated a law by the Supreme People's Court that a "person's dignity should never be insulted".
Chinese television used to show such scenes regularly but largely stopped almost two decades ago, though they still crop up occasionally on provincial channels.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-01/china-prisoners-paraded-on-tv-before-execution/4548988
