Fourteen members of a gang convicted of murdering and robbing their way through central China were executed today in the final chapter of one of the most violent criminalrampages in modern China, state press reported.
"Notorious gang leader Zhang Jun and his ruthless lieutenant LiZejun were executed separately in the Chongqing municipality and inChangde city, Hunan province", Xinhuanews agency said.
The other gang members were also executed in Chongqing andChangde, most likely with a bullet to the back of the head, thepreferred method of execution in China for decades.
Zhang Jun and Li Zejun led a gang of 18 that mesmerized thenation's police with a ruthless killing spree from 1991 to June 2000that resulted in 28 murders and 22 armed robberies in Chongqing andthe provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan and Guangxi.
The gang members, who were convicted of amassing 5.4 million yuan ($650,000) of stolen money and goods during the spree,were convicted and sentenced to death in separate trials on April 21st.
More than 20 years of economic reforms and a widening gapbetween China's rich and poor have also seen an alarming increase inviolent crime and murder, with criminal cases jumping 39 per centfrom 1995 to 1999 and murders up 40 per cent in the last 10 years,official statistics show.
Today's executions came as China was in the midst of a "strike hard" campaign against organized crime that has coincided with theexecutions of at least 500 convicted criminals between April 11 andMay 11.
AFP