- (AFP) -- A total of 819,000 Chinese were condemned to
death or jailed for life over the past five years, the country's Supreme
Court president said.
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- The figure represents a 25 percent rise over the previous
five years, Xiao Yang said in his annual report to members of the National
People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing.
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- A total of 3.2 million people were condemned for various
types of crime over the past five years, he said.
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- The Chinese legal system reserves particularly severe
treatment for people found guilty of organizing themselves into "evil
cults" such as the Falungong spiritual movement, or criminal gangs.
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- The same goes for crimes falling into the categories
of drug trafficking, kidnapping of women and children, underground publishing,
separatism, terrorism and subversion of state power.
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- Xiao also said said 83,308 officials have been found
guilty of corruption over the past five years, the vast majority of them
apparently small fry.
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- Only 2,662 were officials above the county level, one
of the lowest administrative tiers in China's administrative system, Xiao
said in his report.
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- "These results have testified to the intensified
efforts by the people's courts in dealing with job-related crimes and those
offering bribes to government functionaries," Xiao said.
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- The 2,662 public servants at or above the county level
falling foul of the law represented a 65 percent increase over the previous
five-year period, according to Xiao.
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