Execution is inhuman and is never right. We are calling on Chinese authorities to commute the death sentence they have just imposed on a young Beijing man called Yang Jia. You can help.

The 28-year-old could be executed within weeks – we need to act fast.

He was sentenced to death for the premeditated murder of six police officers, after a secret closed trial earlier this month. According to China's state-run Xinhua news agency he had confessed.

Xinhua says Yang Jia stabbed a security guard and started a fire in the entrance to a police station in Shanghai's Zhabei district on 1 July. He then went into the station and stabbed nine police officers. Five of the officers died immediately, while another died later in hospital.

Case raises questions

There have been claims that Yang Jia was taking revenge, after he was allegedly earlier beaten and mistreated at the same police station, while being questioned about an stolen bicycle.

The case has attracted widespread public sympathy, and has sparked debate – online and in the media – about the police treatment of suspects and the fairness of the justice system.

Amnesty International's research shows that nobody sentenced to death in China gets a fair trial in line with international standards. The Chinese system doesn't presume innocence. It uses evidence extracted under torture. It restricts the access defendants have to their lawyer. And it's subject to political interference.

Plea to Justice Minister

You can help Yang Jia by sending an email to China's Minister of Justice, Wu Aiying Buzhan. Send your email and then send the link to everyone you know; spread the word.

We oppose to the use of the death penalty in every country, for whatever reason. It is never acceptable – ever.

Whatever form it takes – electrocution, hanging, beheading, stoning or lethal injection – the death penalty a violent and cruel punishment that has no place in today's criminal justice system.

State secret

Chinese citizens and the rest of the world don't know how many people are executed in China each year – the Government calls the statistics a state secret.

It claims 1,010 people were executed in 2006, but Amnesty International has credible reports putting the figure closer to 8,000. During that same year, the rest of the world combined executed about 1,591 people.

Based on media reports we estimate at least 470 people were put to death in the country last year – the true figure is undoubtedly much higher.