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China’s chief justice calls for death penalty for ‘cruel treatment’ of women, children and the elderly
- Zhou Qiang says death sentence will be ‘consistently implemented against offences that seriously violate public safety and security’
- It comes amid public fury over recently exposed human trafficking cases, including a woman found chained by the neck in a hut
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China’s chief justice has called for the death penalty for serious offences involving “cruel treatment” of women, children and the elderly, in an apparent response to public fury over recently exposed human trafficking cases.
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Delivering the annual work report of the Supreme People’s Court on Tuesday, Zhou Qiang said the death penalty would be “consistently implemented against offences that seriously violate public safety and security”.
“Crimes that challenge the legal and moral bottom line – including cruel treatment against women, children and the elderly – and that warrant the death penalty according to the law, shall receive the death sentence,” Zhou told the annual legislative meeting in Beijing.
China’s top prosecutor, Zhang Jun, also pledged to do more to bring human traffickers to justice as he delivered the work report of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.
“[We will] work with relevant departments and consolidate efforts to prosecute and seek severe punishment for trafficking, not rescuing or obstructing efforts to rescue trafficked women and children,” Zhang told lawmakers.
It comes amid outrage in China over human trafficking, sparked in January by a viral video of a woman found chained by the neck in a hut in Xuzhou, in the eastern province of Jiangsu. It was later revealed that the woman had been sold as a bride and had given birth to eight children.
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