Four criminals were separately sentenced to death for...

Four criminals were separately sentenced to death for forcing women to engage in prostitution by a court in Minquan County of Shangqiu City, Henan Province. After the pronouncement, they were sent under escort to the execution ground and executed.
The Shangqiu Intermediate People's Court found Han Jingtao, Huang Yingfeng, Han Gangqiang and Han Baoxu guilty of deceiving and abducting 18 rural women from Lingling County and Minquan County and taking them to Wenchang City in Hainan Province, where they forced them into prostitution through threats and violence from October 1999 to January 2000. Han Jingtao, Han Gangqiang and Huang Yingfeng also separately raped one of the women.
After the ruling by the court of first instance, the four criminals made an appeal on the ground that excessive punishment was meted out. The court of second instance of the Henan Provincial Higher People's Court rejected the appeal, upheld the original ruling, and gave a written decision on executing the death sentence.