The High People's Court of east China's Jiangsu Province...

The High People's Court of east China's Jiangsu Province rejected the appeals of four Chinese men found guilty of the murder of a German Daimler-Benz AG executive, his wife and their two children at their villa in Nanjing on April 1, 2000.The court retained the death penalty granted by a local court in the provincial capital, Nanjing. The four accused, Zhong Weiyang, 20; Liu Guangyuan, 18; Ding Shanyang, 21; and Zhang Eryang, 20, were executed immediately. On July13, following the convictions of murder and robbery, the Intermediate People's Court of Nanjing sentenced the four to the death penalty. On July 18, Germany protested the death sentence given to the four Chinese men. "The government does not want to see the death sentences carried out," a German foreign affairs spokeswoman said after the sentences were announced. "This is also the wish of the family of those murdered." Despite the protests lodged by Germany and several other European governments, the Chinese government said their would be no leniency. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said that the death sentences handed down to the four men were not subject to change because this would not be in the interests of protecting Chinese and foreign citizens in China.