Zambian govt trying to save woman from Chinese firing squad

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Not sure if this article is partly made up (I’m not just referring to the woman caught smuggling). I hope that it is and fear that it’s not. I’m following some stories of other, Chinese, prisoners and I read/hear accounts of unbearable cruelty and coldness.

http://www.zambianwatchdog.com/?p=2826

Govt trying to save woman from Chinese firing squad

By Kapembwa Chungu-Government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha says government has intervened in the case where a Zambia woman has been sentenced to death through a firing squad in China.

Gen. Shikapwasha told the Watchdog in a phone interview that the Zambian embassy in China is trying to mitigate the court sentence and have Mary Musiyalike brought to Zambia. He said that government can only try to mitigate and have the condemned person serve the sentence in Zambia.

“The embassy in China is alive to the case and have been following it up. Just like that case in Mauritius where a Zambian young woman was sentenced to death but we succeeded in bringing her and she is here serving the life sentence,’” said Gen Shikapwasha.

Gen Shikapwasha appealed to the media to sensitive Zambian women against being used by drug traffickers.

He observed that there are so many Zambian women being held in foreign prisons on account of being used to carry drugs by foreigners.

The Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) earlier revealed that a Zambia businesswoman has been sentenced to death by a firing squad in China for smuggling 2.5Kilograms (Kg) of Heroin.

DEC spokesperson John Nyawali identified the woman as Mary Musiyalike, 38, who left Zambia on 4th December, 2008 via Johannesburg for Shanghai.
He said Musiyalike was arrested on 14th December 2008 at Pudong International Airport and was convicted on 14th May this year.
He has appealed to Zambians living in the Diaspora and at home to desist from activities of drug trafficking.
“Zambians should be proud and promote the Zambian image by staying away from such activities,” he said.

He further added that many countries this year celebrated the ‘Anti drug trafficking day’ which should be an indication to people that no country is a safe haven for drug traffick

China has the death penalty for 68 crimes including murder, drug trafficking, rape, re-selling VAT receipts, pimping, habitual theft, stealing or dealing in national treasures or cultural relics, publishing pornography, selling counterfeit money, economic offences such as graft, speculation and profiteering and even killing a panda.
During the “Strike hard” campaign against crime in China during the Spring of 2001, Amnesty International recorded a staggering 1,781 executions. This figure is greater than the total number of executions carried out in the rest of the world put together.
China does not publish statistics about the death penalty – these are a state secret.
Executions are often carried out immediately after a public sentencing rally and the criminal’s family is made to pay for the bullet.
The prisoner’s arms are shackled behind them and they are made to kneel down before receiving a single bullet fired at close range into the back of the head or neck by a soldier or policeman or by a bullet fired into the heart from behind using an automatic rifle.
Chinese laws do not specifically state the site of execution grounds and shootings are carried out at military target ranges and along river banks and on remote hill sides, the prisoners being transported in open lorries from the sports stadiums where they were sentenced.
Condemned criminals are not executed inside prisons because it is regarded as inhumane for other inmates to hear the sound of gunfire.
In a typical mass public execution in December 1995, 13 men and women convicted of murder and highway robbery were shot after the Court dismissed their appeals. Chinese television showed the 9 men and 4 women being paraded at a sports stadium in front of a crowd of more than 10,000 before being taken to the execution ground on a nearby hillside.
Frequently the kidneys, hearts and corneas are removed from the dead prisoners and used in transplants at local hospitals. “Execution is one of the indispensable means of education,” China’s paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, once said.
During 1997, China began experimenting with lethal injection and this has replaced shooting in some provinces and tends also to be used on high ranking prisoners.

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