Taiwan gangster gets suspended death sentence in Zhuhai

A gang leader from Taiwan was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on Tuesday for organizing a mafia-style gang in Guangdong province's Zhuhai Special Economic Zone.

Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court said the sentence given to Huang Jianwei, 57, would not be eligible for commutation. It also ordered the confiscation of all his illegally gained assets.

Huang was found guilty of organizing a gang that had kidnapped and imprisoned people in the Pearl River Delta cities of Dongguan, Zhongshan and Zhuhai since 2008.

Huang, who claimed to be a leader of a triad-related criminal gang in Taiwan, was found to have used coercion and inducements to take in new gang members in Guangdong.

Huang and his gang had seriously damaged social order and brought about a very bad social influence in the three cities when they used violence, threats, intimidation and other illegal and violent methods to forcibly demand repayment of debts and grab illegal profits, the verdict said.

Five other members of Huang's gang were given jail sentences ranging from one year and seven months to life.

The case was the first in recent years handled by a court in Guangdong involving a Taiwan resident coming to the Chinese mainland to organize a secret society related violent gang.

Meanwhile, the Zhuhai intermediate court sentenced five members of another violent gang to jail terms ranging from four to 20 years on Tuesday.

Wu Yilin, the gang leader, received the heaviest sentence and was also fined 300,000 yuan ($43,000). He was convicted of kidnapping, illegally owning weapons, false imprisonment and extortion.

Also on Tuesday, the Jiangmen Intermediate People's Court upheld a ruling by a lower court that sentenced 21 members of a criminal gang to up to 25 years in jail.

Jiang Nongda, the key leader of a local criminal gang, was sentenced to 25 years in jail, while 20 other gang members were sentenced to jail terms ranging from three years and seven months to 19 years and six months.

Jiang and his gang were convicted of using violence to force people to trade with them, offering bribes to local Party and government officials, opening secret casinos and intentional injury since 2009.