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Five sentenced to death over mine murder scams

Xinhua, September 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

Five people have been sentenced to death by a court in northwest China after being found guilty of killing five miners to swindle compensations from managers.

The Shizuishan City Intermediate People's Court in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region convicted 10 defendants of deceiving others into working at coal mines and then killing them with stones, shovels and hammers when they worked in mines in Ningxia and Shanxi, Shaanxi provinces between 2010 and 2013.

They killed five people and swindled 2.3 million yuan (360,000 U.S. dollars) from mine owners by alleging themselves to be family of the dead, said the court.

Cheng Wentao, Zhou Shikao and Qiao Yanbo were sentenced to death for murder. Li Chuncheng and Xia Duming received a suspended death. Five others were sentenced to three to 15 years in prison.

The mine murder cases were almost identical to the plot of the "Blind Shaft", a movie which won the Silver Bear award at 2003 Berlin Film Festival.

Similar murder cases have occurred elsewhere in China over the past decade as some mine owners attempt to cover up the fraudulent "accidents" to avoid an investigation by work safety authorities. Endi