CHINA. COUNTRY EXECUTES NINE TIMES MORE PEOPLE THAN REST OF WORLD, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

China accounted for about 90 percent of the 3,797 legally sanctioned executions in 25 countries across the world in 2004, the human rights group Amnesty International said, warning that most of those executed did not have fair trials.
"It is worrying that the vast majority of those executed in the world did not have fair trials. Many were convicted on the basis of 'evidence' extracted under torture," Amnesty said in a statement.
The London-based group said that the real figure in China was likely to be far higher than its estimate of 3,400 executions there.
Overall, Amnesty's estimates marked a sharp rise over the 1,143 executions it had recorded in the world in 2003, largely due to its revised estimate for China.
Amnesty had accounted for 726 people executed in China in 2003 based on "public reports".
The advocacy group said it believed the global figures were "only the tip of the iceberg". "The true picture is hard to uncover as many countries continue to execute people secretly -- contravening United Nations standards calling for disclosure of information on capital punishment," the group said in a statement.