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Facing their last moments with a smile: The Chinese women about to be executed for drug smuggling
A
young woman sits cross-legged on the ground laughing playfully as she
is fed a lychee. Another plays cards in pair of baggy pink pyjamas.
The moving images could show any group of young women as they go about their daily lives in prison.
But
just hours - and in some cases minutes - after the pictures were taken,
each of the four women were led into a concrete yard and executed.
The
previously unseen photographs have emerged for the first time in nearly
a decade - and give an incredibly rare glimpse into final moments of
Chinese prisoners on death row.
Communist officials are
notoriously guarded about the death penalty, in a country that carries
out more executions than any other.
But in an
unprecedented move, an unnamed civilian photographer was allowed inside
No 1 Detention Centre for women in the industrial city of Wuhan, in
central China. The man took a series of pictures on June 24, 2003.
But
so sensitive were the photographs, that the authorities banned them
from being published. The Government feared they would evoke sympathy
for the female prisoners.
Until now they had remained
unseen. However, last week the pictures were published for the first
time on Phoenix TV, a broadcaster in Hong Kong.
The
photographer was granted access to Ma Qingxiu, Li Juhua, Dai Donggui and
He Xiuling from 9pm until 7.21 am the next morning. The women had all
been convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death.
Ms
Donggui is shown carefully folding her red prison clothes on the floor.
She smiles as she displays off a red top to the photographer, choosing
what her last outfit will be.
Crouching on her
mattress, with her hands and feet shackled, she holds a bowl of green
bean soup. In the corner of a room is a red bowl used for washing and a
McDonald's meal given to prisoners.
Moments later a
guard appears and feeds her a lychee before she's escorted the next
morning to the execution grounds. As she prepares to be taken away, Ms
Donggui applies red nail polish with the help of prison guards.
In another scene, Ms Juhua sits in her cell as a fellow convict records her last will and testament.
Just
yards away Ms Xiuling and Ms Qingxiu laugh as they play cards with
inmates. The cameraman remembers Ms Xiuling as being 'excited and
exaggerated' during the evening.
The chubby 25-year-old
prisoner, who had been caught carrying 7,000 grams illegal drugs, was
the liveliest of the inmates, gently resting her head on another women's
leg as she smiles.
She was worried about appearing
'too fat' in her pyjamas, and one of the inmates found her a black top
to change into. Another image shows her squeezing into a new pair of
shoes.
But throughout the evening she was restless, and began praying to the heavens to be allowed another chance at life.
At
6am, Ms Qingxiu, 49, hands over her old clothes to another inmate who
will need them. She moves to a temporary cell and joins Ms Xiuling, who
is dabbing tears from her eyes.
The final few
photographs show the inmates walking into the execution ground. Some of
them have their legs shackled as they join 16 other death row inmates.
Ms
Xiuling is held by a guard, but she can't stop herself from crying as
her life draws to a close. The women are taken away by guards and
minutes later shot in the back of the head.
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