North China court sentences 15 for robbing ancient tombs

TAIYUAN, May 30 (Xinhua) -- A county court in north China's Shanxi Province has sentenced convicts in five tomb-robbing cases to prison terms ranging from eight to 20 years.

According to the court of Wenxi County, the criminals had been robbing protected ancient tombs around the province. One of them, who had served prison sentences for similar crimes before committing the crime again, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 300,000 yuan (46,675 U.S. dollars).

Shanxi is home to 452 cultural relic sites under state-level protection and more than 28,000 ancient architectural sites -- the highest among all provincial regions.

The province recently held an exhibition featuring 4,431 recovered stolen cultural relics. Enditem