Chinese court sentences seven drug traffickers to death penalty

[News_Editor]

Chinese court sentences seven drug traffickers to death penalty

2011-06-24 23:54:05 GMT+7 (ICT)

NANJING, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- A Chinese court on Friday sentenced seven men to death penalty after being convicted of drug trafficking in the eastern Jiangsu Province, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The Intermediate People's Court in Changzhou city sentenced Wei Rong Xiu and Cheng Gang to death while five other drug dealers received death sentences with a two-year reprieve.

Wei and Chen were found guilty of selling over 2 kilograms of methamphetamine hydrochloride, known in the streets as 'ice', between August 2008 and December 2009. The other five defendants were given lenient sentences after pleading guilty to the charges brought against them.

The Changzhou court also ordered to seize all properties of the seven convicts as well as depriving them of their political rights for life. Chinese authorities have intensified their efforts to fight drug trafficking in recent times.

It is unknown how many people are executed in China each year as the government considers these figures to be a state secret. But according to Amnesty International, the figure is at least 'thousands'.

In late May, China executed 68-year-old Li Shengguang who was arrested in June 2009 after 21 toddlers at the Muge Township Wenda Kindergarten in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of southern China were sickened by a rat poison. Two of the children died as a result of the poisoning, which was intended to kill a contractor at the school.

In November 2010, China said it executed 37-year-old Cheng Ruilong who was previously convicted of murdering and raping 11 people, including three police officers, between May 1996 and January 2005. Charges for the alleged murders of a mother and her daughter were dropped as their bodies have never been recovered.

And in December 2009, China executed 53-year-old British citizen Akmal Shaikh who had been convicted of smuggling drugs into China. It sparked international condemnation as Shaikh reportedly had a mental illness, which may have been exploited by criminals. He was the first European national to be executed in China since 1951.

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