Gang leader executed in China

BEIJING — A former gang leader who was the son of a high-ranking politician was executed this week in northern China after being convicted of murder, kidnapping, and extortion, state media reported.

Xu Wei was executed by lethal injection, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late Thursday.

Xu Wei held a day job as deputy manager of the Yushu City Thermal Power Co. in Yushu city in the northeastern province of Jilin. He was found guilty of providing guns to two gang members who gunned down a former business rival and for bribing police officers to bail the men out of jail, Xinhua reported. He was also convicted of ordering a town leader killed in 1998, according to Xinhua.

The 42-year-old gang leader was the son of Yushu's former deputy mayor.

In a earlier separate case his father, Xu Fengshan, was sentenced to death with a reprieve of two years for taking more than 20 million yuan (2.93 million U.S. dollars) in bribes, and harboring criminal organizations. A death sentence with a reprieve is most often commuted to a life sentence.

Graft is rampant in China, causing widespread public anger that has undermined the Communist Party's authority. Thousands of officials have been punished, some executed, in the last several years.

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Nov 06, 2009 - 02:47 a.m. EDT

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