10 August 2015, 16:44 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The death penalty has been practised in China very rarely over the last 10 years after in 2007 the Supreme People's Court obtained the right to review all death sentences passed by lower courts, Chief Justice Zhou Qiang said Sunday.
"In ten years since the Supreme People's Court returned the right to review death sentences, the court strictly controlled and carefully monitored the execution of the death penalty, guaranteed that it was used extremely rarely and only for criminals who committed particularly serious crimes," Qiang said speaking at the National People's Congress.
He added that the court strengthened control over the passing of sentences and securing the rights of the defendants for appeals without giving any figures on executions.
The capital punishment in China is given under 46 articles of the Criminal Code with the overwhelming majority of cases being illicit drug trafficking. Recently, the number of death penalties for corruption has sharply increased.
