The Government in Beijing has announced that confessions extracted under torture will no longer be admissible as evidence in court.

This is expected also to reduce the number of death sentences handed down.

In this connection Markus Löning, the Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office, today (1 June) issued the following statement:

“More people are sentenced to death and executed in China than anywhere else in the world. There are still key demands to which the Chinese authorities have yet to respond: publication of the actual figures for executions and abolition of the death penalty as soon as possible.

I welcome China’s decision that confessions extracted under torture will no longer be admissible as evidence in court. This is a step towards improving the justice system. China remains called upon to comply with its international obligations and ensure full implementation of the ban on torture.”