One of Beijing's Olympic stadiums was used for mass sentencing rallies where handcuffed prisoners were paraded in front of jeering mobs before being executed, it emerged today.
Crowds cheered at the Beijing Workers' Stadium as "traitors" to the Chinese Government were humiliated before being removed and shot.
The 64,000 seat venue, which will host the football tournament for the Games, has been hailed as the pride of Beijing, along with several other spectacular arenas across the city.
The venue, which was China's national stadium before the "Bird's Nest" arena was among the stadiums used for rallies during China's Cultural Revolution of 1966 - 1976. The Shows which would last for up to an hour saw prisoners - who were often human rights prisoners - handcuffed , made to bow to officials and sometimes beaten. In 1970, human rights protester Yu Luoke, 27 , was paraded in front of a screaming mob at the Workers' Stadium and executed after leaving the venue.
A West Hampstead Teacher (London) Xia Ze, 52, whose cousin died in the Tiananmen Square massacre in June 1989, said"As a child I was made to watch sentencing rallies with my school. They were awful. I remember one man who was struggling was kicked by officials"
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