Jilin crime boss executed

A MAFIA ring leader, who is also son of a former high-ranking city official, was executed yesterday by lethal injection in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, according to a court statement.

Convicted of murder, kidnapping, intentional injury, extortion and other crimes, Xu Wei, 42, was sentenced to death by the Changchun Intermediate People's Court on September 20, 2007.

The Higher People's Court of Jilin Province denied Xu's appeal and upheld the first verdict on July 10, 2008. The Supreme People's Court approved the death sentence.

Xu, deputy manager of Yushu City Thermal Power Co. and son of Xu Fengshan, former deputy mayor of Yushu City, was found to have provided guns to two gangsters who killed a business rival in 1997.

Believing a township head didn't pay him enough respect, Xu beaten him to death in 1998. The man lingered in a coma and died in 2000 at the age of 49, court verdict said.

In a separate case, the father Xu Fengshan was sentenced to death with a reprieve of two years for taking more than 20 million yuan (US$2.93 million) in bribery and harboring criminal organizations.

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