Facing their last moments with a smile. A painful walk: At 7am in the morning, the convicts are walked into the execution ground to face their death as the guards watch them

Facing their last moments with a smile. A painful walk: At 7am in the morning, the convicts are walked into the execution ground to face their death as the guards watch them

   

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.

Dai Donggui tries on an outfit for her to wear before her execution

A female police officer feeds a lychee to condemned drug dealer Dai Donggu Last wishes: At 10:15pm the evening before her execution, an inmate records condemned drug trafficker Li Juhua's last will and testament

Preparations: Ms Donggui, in handcuffs and ankle shackles, neatly folds her red clothes onto the mattress she'll sleep on before she's shot in the morning

Her last meal: Ms Donggui picks up a bowl of green bean soup on a red stool, that also has McDonalds fries, a burger and ice cream on

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.

He Xiuling, the youngest of the female death row inmates, is excited and exaggerated Another female prisoner feeds Ms Xiuling dumplings for a late-night snack A fragment of dignity: Ms Xiuling smiles as she squeezes into the new shoes she will wear for the execution

A last moment of joy: Ms Xiuling sits with prison guards and inmates the night before her execution, revealing her natural lively side as she rests her head against another woman

Passing time:

Ms Xiuling and Ma Qingxiu, both sentenced to die, play cards with other inmates not on death-row as guards look on. The group appear relaxed and upbeat

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.