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PRC court sentences two to death for stealing oil

A Chinese court has sentenced two men to death for masterminding a plot to steal oil from an underwater pipeline that went wrong, causing tens of millions of dollars in damage, a state news agency reported yesterday.

Wang Yujiang (王玉江) and Liu Linbin (劉林彬) were sentenced to death on Friday by the Intermediate People's Court in Dongying, a city in Shandong Province in eastern China, Xinhua said.

By law, death sentences have to be approved by the Supreme Court.

The court heard that Wang's gang drilled into what they thought was an oil pipeline in the Shengli oilfield in June 2005. Instead they found they had drilled into a natural gas pipeline, Xinhua said.

The natural gas leak was not discovered until March last year. The gang succeed in stealing about 65 barrels of oil from a pipeline in a different location. The hole in the pipeline was not discovered for five months, it said.

Emergency repairs and clean up at the two locations plus damages to local fishing cost an estimated 400 million yuan (US$53 million), the court was told.

One other person got a suspended death sentence, which means he will get life if he cooperates over the next two years. Seven others were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three years to life.
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