China's most-wanted criminal, who was sentenced to death for 13 murders, robbery and rape, was executed in Foshan, Guangdong Province, yesterday.
Cheng Ruilong, a 37-year-old Guangdong native who used various aliases, was found to have committed a series of violent crimes in several provinces in southern and eastern China between May 1996 and January 2005. The murder victims included three police officers, according to the Foshan Intermediate People s Court.
In one case, Cheng killed three members of a family and then stole 80,000 yuan (US$11,800) from them in Zhuzhou in Hunan Province in 1997.
Cheng said in court he killed his victims to survive.
He was listed as wanted by the Ministry of Public Security in May 1998 for murder. He was arrested for robbery in Ganzhou City in Jiangxi Province in January 2005. At the time, he was using the alias, Zhou Quan. He was sentenced to seven years in jail by a local court.
He was transferred to Foshan police for further investigation in May 2009 when his true identity became known.
He was sentenced to death by Foshan Intermediate People s Court in February 2010.
