CHINA: GERMAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER IN XIAMEN

August 21, 2014: a German was sentenced to death in China for the first time in modern history. The 36-year-old man was convicted of a double murder in Xiamen in 2010. Germany has vowed to stop the execution.
German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schäfer said at a press conference in Berlin that the man, who was not named in accordance with German press guidelines, had been convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend and her partner on a street in Xiamen in June 2010 using a hammer and a knife.
Schäfer stressed that the verdict could be appealed and underlined Germany’s opposition to the death penalty. He said Berlin would do “everything in its power” to ensure that the death sentence wouldn’t be carried out. “The German government categorically opposes all forms of capital punishment ... and this of course applies all the more when German nationals are threatened abroad.”
This is the first time on record that China has sentenced a German national to death. The last time a European was executed was in 2009, when China put to death a British citizen for drug smuggling. (Sources: DPA/AFP, 20/08/2014)