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A total of 44 Japanese drug-related criminals were arrested by China in 2014, 33 of which have been given corresponding sentences, five people were executed, and six were given death sentence with two years' probation.
What is the point of adding a few years of probation to a death sentence?
This is a traditional Chinese sentence which in practice is similar to a suspended sentence:
Mainland Chinese courts hand down the sentence of "death sentence with two years' probation" (Chinese: 死缓; pinyin: sǐ huǎn) as frequently as, or more often than, they do actual death sentences. This unique sentence is used to emphasize the seriousness of the crime and the mercy of the court, and has a centuries-old history in Chinese jurisprudence. It is almost always reduced to life or 10 to 15 years imprisonment if no new crime is intentionally committed during the two year probationary period.
