ASIAN COUNTRIES PUTTING THOUSANDS TO DEATH AFTER UNFAIR TRIALS

December 6, 2011: A hard-line group of Asian countries are defying the global trend against the death penalty and putting to death thousands of people after unfair trials every year, Amnesty International and colleagues in the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) said today in a new report.
Some 14 Asian countries, taken together, execute more people than the rest of the world combined. Worryingly Thailand and Taiwan have both resumed use of the death penalty after a period of cessation.
The report, “When justice fails: thousands executed in Asia after unfair trials”, highlights the struggle to secure a fair trial in eight of these countries. The report calls for action for eight people facing execution in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Pakistan. In each case, a death sentence was delivered after an unfair trial and in six of the cases the conviction relied on a confession extracted through torture.
Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Asia-Pacific, said:
"The flawed justice systems in many of these countries, creates a situation where people are executed after blatantly unfair trials where they have had little or no access to legal advice and may even have been convicted after being tortured into confessing."
Over half of all Asian countries have officially abolished the death penalty, or have in practice not carried out executions in the last ten years.
The Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) launched in 2006. ADPAN is an independent cross-regional network that campaigns for an end to the death penalty across the Asia-Pacific Region. ADPAN is independent of governments and any political or religious affiliation. Members include lawyers, NGOs, civil society groups, human rights defenders and activists from 23 countries. (Sources: Amnesty International, 06/12/2011)