Another Chinese Trafficker Sentenced UPDATED

This is another case from Yunnan Province.  The children were sold in central Hennan Province between late 2009 and August 2010.While many of the cases we have described from China involve selling the children for $300 to $500 apiece, Jiang Kaizhi, 51, the prime culprit, netted “30,000 yuan ($4,711) for selling a baby boy while the profit for trafficking a baby girl was more than 20,000 yuan, said the verdict. ”

Jiang was arrested in January 2011. A total of 223 children were sold by the ring. Jiang was sentenced to death by the intermediate people’s court in the city of Qujing (southwest Yunnan Province). Thirty-five others had sentences ranging from three years to life imposed on June 15, 2012. The charges were abducting, transporting and trafficking infants.

Sources:

Woman sentenced to death for infant trafficking

[People Daily 6/18/12]

Chinese sentenced to death for trafficking infants

[Sacramento Bee 6/15/12 by Associated Press]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “The appeal of a woman sentenced to death last year for trafficking 223 children has been heard, according to the Yunnan Provincial High Court.

Jiang Kaizhi, 52, was convicted in June of running a ring that trafficked 223 children from Yunnan to Henan province. Thirty-five accomplices, mostly her friends and relatives, received three-year to life sentences from the intermediate court in Qujing, Yunnan.

Jiang and her accomplices found their sentences overly harsh and appealed to the Yunnan Provincial High Court, said Ou Hongyan, publicity director at the Qujing court.

The appeal was heard on May 17 in Xuanwei, where most of the abducted children were born. It is not known when the verdict will be announced.

From late 2009 to August 2010, Jiang led the group in abducting and buying children in areas such as Xuanwei, Huize and Kaiyuan in Yunnan. The children were then taken to Zhengzhou, Henan province.

Jiang could earn as much as 30,000 yuan ($4,890) for selling a boy and 20,000 yuan a girl. She paid her accomplices 3,500 yuan to 4,500 yuan for one trip between the two provinces.

Chen Shiqu, director of the anti-human trafficking office in the Ministry of Public Security’s Criminal Investigation Department, led the investigation that broke up the gang.

He said that the extent of their activity, trafficking 223 children, was astounding and harsher penalties were warranted.

Chen said the gang drugged the children with sleeping pills to transport them from Yunnan to Henan, which caused them great physical and psychological harm.

Wu Mingan, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said the case involving 223 children was the largest he knew of.

“If the facts of the case are true, Jiang’s death penalty was legally the right choice,” Wu said.

Chen said the next step is to strictly follow the anti-human trafficking plan issued last year and focus on breaking up the buyer market to eradicate human trafficking.”

Traffickers await appeal verdict

[China Daily 5/30/13 by Hu Yongqi and Zhang Yan]