'China the gold medallist for global executions'

Human rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday alleged that China would execute an estimated 374 people during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

China, it said, had admitted using capital punishment 470 times in 2007, but campaigners believed the true figure to be nearly 8,000, it said.

"As the world's biggest executioner, China gets the 'gold medal' for global executions," claimed Amnesty's British director Kate Allen.

"According to reliable estimates, on an average, China secretly executes around 22 prisoners every day; that's 374 people during the Olympic Games," she claimed.

The London-based group urged the International Olympic Committee and Olympic athletes press for greater openness about executions by China.

Amnesty said that nearly 70 crimes could carry the death penalty in China, including tax fraud, stealing VAT receipts, damaging electric power facilities, selling counterfeit medicine, embezzlement, accepting bribes and drug offences.

China, Allen alleged, classified the death penalty as a state secret.

She said, "As the world and Olympic guests are left guessing, only the Chinese authorities know exactly how many people have been killed with state authorisation".

"The secretive use of the death penalty must stop; the veil of secrecy surrounding the death penalty must be lifted. Many governments claim that executions take place with public support. People therefore have a right to know what is being done in their name," the group added in a statement.