Mafia kingpin Liu Yong was sentenced to death and executed yesterday, despite doubts over his confession, in a ruling that marked the first time the Supreme Court has circumvented China's two-trial criminal law system.
Immediately after the sentencing, Liu was sent to a crematorium where he was administered a lethal injection in a mobile execution van, officials said.
"Liu Yong was executed in an execution van through lethal injection," said an official surnamed Zhang at the crematorium at Jinzhou city, Liaoning province.
It took about 40 minutes from the time Liu arrived at the crematorium to the time he was pronounced dead, she said.
The State Supreme Court said in a statement after its verdict that Liu had been sentenced "for the crime of willfully causing harm."
"He should also be punished for a series of other crimes, and it was decided that the death sentence should be implemented," the decision, carried by Xinhua news agency, said.
Liu was originally sentenced to death in April last year, but during his appeal it was revealed that his confession had been extracted through torture and in August this year he was given a two-year reprieve by the Liaoning high court.
A reprieve on a death sentence often results in life imprisonment.
Liu's retrial, which began on Thursday, marks the first time in the history of the People's Republic of China that the Supreme Court has bypassed the two-trial criminal law system and issued a different ruling.
Evidence collected from forced confessions are inadmissible under Chinese law, but Monday's ruling suggested that the court felt there was enough additional evidence to warrant Liu's death in accordance with the first ruling.
Court transcripts obtained by the state-run China Central Television had no mention of torture or forced confession.
Liu was initially convicted on 32 charges including racketeering, extortion, premeditated assault and illegal possession of firearms in a case linked to a series of trials that effectively brought down the government of Shenyang city, the capital of Liaoning, in 2000.
He was accused of amassing 600 million yuan (US$72.5 million) in illegally gained assets.
Using the Jiayang Group as a business cover for his activities, Liu allegedly bought off over 500 government, judicial and police officials to run huge rackets in Shenyang real estate and tobacco markets.
In related cases, former Shen-yang mayor Mu Suixin was sentenced to death and given a two-year reprieve in 2001, and former vice mayor Ma Xiangdong was sentenced to death and executed in December 2000.
Scores of other officials and mafia figures were given capital punishment or sentenced to death with reprieves in related trials.
Liu was formerly a delegate to the Shenyang People's Congress.
The retrial came after massive public opinion decried the high court's reprieve and as the central government expressed eagerness to crack down harder on corruption.
At the time the August ruling was deemed just and fair when read out at Liu's earlier appeal, with judges citing a confession by police that Liu was brutally tortured while in custody.
"There are two main reasons for the verdict change, one is the evidence was not obtained carefully, and the other is that the evidence was flawed," Liu Liming, a judge at the Liaoning high court, told the Beijing Youth Daily in August.
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-US tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Sunday called for the immediate release of the pastors. Pastor Jin Mingri (金明日), founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was detained at his home in the southern city of Beihai on Friday evening, said
Floods on Sunday trapped people in vehicles and homes in Spain as torrential rain drenched the northeastern Catalonia region, a day after downpours unleashed travel chaos on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. Local media shared videos of roaring torrents of brown water tearing through streets and submerging vehicles. National weather agency AEMET decreed the highest red alert in the province of Tarragona, warning of 180mm of rain in 12 hours in the Ebro River delta. Catalan fire service spokesman Oriol Corbella told reporters people had been caught by surprise, with people trapped “inside vehicles, in buildings, on ground floors.” Santa Barbara Mayor Josep Lluis
The Venezuelan government on Monday said that it would close its embassies in Norway and Australia, and open new ones in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe in a restructuring of its foreign service, after weeks of growing tensions with the US. The closures are part of the “strategic reassignation of resources,” Venezueland President Nicolas Maduro’s government said in a statement, adding that consular services to Venezuelans in Norway and Australia would be provided by diplomatic missions, with details to be shared in the coming days. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it had received notice of the embassy closure, but no
RSS