CHINA: SIX EXECUTED FOR KILLING WORKERS IN MINING COMPENSATION SCAM

Six men were executed on 12 April 2019 in northern China for killing mine workers and then claiming millions of yuan in compensation from the pit owners. According to a verdict from Linfen Intermediate People’s Court in Shanxi province, the defendants claimed the compensation by posing as the victims’ relatives and saying the workers died in industrial accidents, Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper reported on 5 May 2019. The court said the six farmers – Peng Wanjun, Guo Dejing, Wang Honglin, Zhang Yuanmei, Bai Yuangui and Liu Xuejun – killed 11 workers in mines in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces between 2007 and 2014, cheating the mining companies out of a combined 3.1 million yuan (US$460,000) in compensation. The six criminals were aged between 22 and 47 and from poor remote villages in Shaanxi.