Yu Huaying was convicted of abduction and trafficking children for profits over a 10-year spell, between 1993 and 2003, and was sentenced to death in October last year
A woman has been put to death for her role in a sick gang of human traffickers that abducted 17 children over the period of 10 years.
Yu Huaying, 60, was sentenced to execution on October 25 last year in China, and the state deprived her of the political rights for life. All of her property was confiscated by the state, and she was left waiting for death in prison.
Yu appealed the verdict after her initial conviction, but a High People’s Court struck out the claim, and the original judgement was upheld. The death sentence was later approved by the Supreme People’s Court.
She was executed on Friday, a court statement confirmed. The execution was conducted by the Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court in southwest China’s Guizhou Province., and the procedure was supervised by prosecutors from the local procuratorate, state media reported.
Yu was found to have abducted children from Guizhou, Chongqing and Yunnan along with her accomplices, and sold them for profit between 1993 and 2003. Her actions devastated 12 families – some of whome spent years searching for their lost children, the court heard last year.
“The malice of the defendant was extremely deep, the circumstances of the crimes were exceptionally serious, and the consequences were severe,” the intermediate court said in its ruling. The evidence was sufficient, and the law correctly applied to proceed with the execution, it added.
“Yu treated children as goods to be bought and sold, severely harming their dignity and personal freedom,” the high court said, adding that her actions caused “immeasurable damage” to the victims’ families.
The horrors came to light in 2022, after a woman alleged she was abducted by Yu in Guizhou, back in 1995. She said she was sold in Hebei for 3,500 yuan (£381).
Yu was arrested shortly after the complaint, and then 10 other victims were found. She was sentenced to death for abducting and trafficking the 11 kids, and then a further six victims came forward.
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