Chinese authorities executed Friday a Japanese man in his 50s who had been sentenced to death in connection with stimulant drug smuggling.
Commenting on the execution, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told Kyodo News that China prudently applies the death penalty, and renders judgment based on strict legal procedures and reviews them. "The judicial branch also administers capital punishment based on normal procedures," Hong said.
Yang Yu, counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo, voiced agreement with the execution, saying at a press conference Friday that drug-related offenses are considered serious crimes anywhere in the world.
"In China, the judicial branch independently hands down decisions based on the law, and all people whatever their nationality are treated equally and punished severely," he emphasized.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said China had notified Japan that the execution took place in the morning.
The man was sentenced to death in December 2012 and the ruling became final in August 2013, Japanese officials said, adding that he met his family on Thursday.
Since Tokyo and Beijing normalized diplomatic relations in 1972, the man, whose identity was not released, is the 5th Japanese to have been executed in China, according to the officials.
Kishida told a news conference in Tokyo that while it is up to China to decide what kind of penalty should be imposed on criminals, "We have conveyed to the Chinese side that we have taken a heightened interest in the death penalty handed down to Japanese nationals." In China, the smuggling of 50 grams or more of narcotics is an offense punishable by death. In 2010, four Japanese were executed in China for stimulant drug smuggling.
Amnesty International estimates that China executed thousands of people in 2013 under the death penalty, more than any other country in the world. China does not disclose how many executions it carries out each year.
A court in Dalian in northeastern China conveyed the information on the latest execution to the Japanese consular office in the city, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
Source: Kyodo News International, July 25, 2014
