2 gang leaders executed in Chongqing
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Two gang leaders were executed Tuesday in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality after being convicted of organizing a nine-member criminal gang and murder.
The executions of Yang Tianqing and Liu Chenghu were carried out after the Supreme People's Court approved the death sentences, said a statement from the Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, which handed down the death sentences in the first trial on Oct. 21 last year.
The Chongqing High People's Court upheld the verdict in the second trial on Dec. 14.
Two other members of the gang were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and the other five received jail terms from 11 years to life.
The statement said the gang's crimes spanned five years through to 2009 and involved the murders of four people and intentionally injuring at least six.
They were also convicted of illegally possessing guns or ammunition, illegally detaining others, robbery and extortion and forging resident identity cards, it said.
The Commission of Politics and Law of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee said in a statement Tuesday that all suspects in major organized crimes would be tried before the Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 14 this year.
A total of 534 suspects in 31 organized crime cases had been handed to prosecutors, and first instance trials in 26 cases had been finished, the commission said.
Police arrested 3,193 people and froze or sealed 2.17 billion yuan (318 million U.S. dollars) of assets in last year's crackdown on organized crimes, the statement said.
