Executions in the People’s Republic
After brutal murder cases: China executes three people
Chinese police officers in front of a justice building (symbolic image)
© Liau Chung-ren / Imago Images
Three people were executed for murder in China. These are cases that are rarely made public. The People’s Republic keeps a low profile when it comes to executions.
In a rare move, Chinese authorities on Wednesday Executions in two spectacular murder cases were announced: On the same day, a couple who had thrown two small children out of the window of a high-rise building and a man who had brutally killed his mother were executed.
The murder of the two-year-old girl and her one-year-old brother in November 2020 in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing in particular caused outrage throughout China. At the instigation of his lover, their father had simulated an unfortunate fall of the two little ones from the window on the 15th floor of a residential tower while their mother was away.
According to the court, although the mother had already agreed to a divorce, his girlfriend pushed for the death of the two children, which she saw as a “burden” for their future life together. According to the Chongqing People’s Court, the couple were sentenced to death in December 2021 and executed on Wednesday.
No official figures on executions in China
On the same day, the death sentence was carried out in the eastern province of Fujian for a man who killed his mother by repeatedly beating him with a dumbbell in 2015, the court there said.
The Chinese authorities keep the number of their executions secret, but Amnesty International estimates that thousands of people are sentenced to death or executed in the People’s Republic every year, more than in any other country in the world.