A German national has been sentenced to death by a court in the southern Chinese city of Xiamen on two counts of premeditated killing.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer told reporters the judgement was handed down Tuesday. The 36-year-old-man in question was not identified, but court statements showed he was convicted of murdering his girlfriend and her partner with a hammer and a knife on a Xiamen street in 2010. The Xiamen Intermediate People's Court confirmed a German national was sentenced to death the previous day, but did not give any further details.

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According to Chinese procedure, this initial judgment now moves on to a higher court for confirmation, before the execution is carried out.

Under Chinese law, the verdict is allowed an appeal. Schaefer, who emphasized his country's "categorical" opposition to capital punishment, pledged officials in Berlin would try to commute the sentence or see that it was not otherwise carried out. The German Constitution has forbidden death penalties since 1949.

According to Amnesty International, 141 countries abolished the death penalty by 2013. Notable exceptions are China, the United States, Japan, and Singapore. Of all Europe, only Belarus still carries such judgements out, and several European countries shelter alleged law-breakers from abroad because they face capital punishment in their native counties. 

Because China does not release capital punishment figures, it is not known exactly how many executions Chinese officials have carried out, but human rights advocates charge the number to be in the thousands. 

This is not the first time Chinese courts handed down death sentences to foreign nationals. Three Filipinos were executed for their roles in drug trafficking in 2011, despite pleas from Manila and world human rights groups for Beijing to commute the sentences.

A British national was executed by Chinese authorities in 2009, the last time to date a European citizen was put to death in China, also on drug charges.

TagsChina death penalty, Germany