China parades condemned killers

1 March 2013 Last updated at 02:18 ET

The defendants were found guilty at a trial in November

Four foreign men are due to be executed in China for the murder of 13 Chinese fishermen on the Mekong river in 2011, says state media.

One of those to be executed is Naw Kham, a Burmese man believed to be the most powerful warlords in the Golden Triangle of Thailand, Laos and Burma.

CCTV News is broadcasting live from the site of the execution in Yunnan.

The fishermen were found dead inside two Chinese cargo ships in October 2011 on the Thai side of the river.

State media said Naw Kham and his subordinates had collaborated with Thai soldiers in launching an attack on the ships, the Hua Ping and Yu Xing.

The other men are named as Hsang Kham from Thailand, Yi Lai, who is stateless, and Zha Xika from Laos, said the Xinhua news agency.

The group were arrested in Burma and brought to China in May last year, after Beijing said the attack had happened on board Chinese-flagged ships.

In November, they were found guilty of intentional homicide, drug trafficking, kidnapping and hijacking.

Two other members of the gang were also convicted - one received a death sentence with reprieve and the other eight years in prison.

Thailand launched an investigation into the allegations against nine of its soldiers.

Live coverage

China's state media had earlier said that after finals appeals, the four would be executed by lethal injection on Friday. Xinhua said they had had their "legal rights fully respected" while on death row.

The Chinese state broadcaster CCTV will broadcast live throughout the executions, though it was not clear if it intended to carry footage from inside the death chamber.

CCTV did show the men as they were led from their cells into Kunming and into police vans.

The attack came amid a wave of hijacking of vessels sailing on the Mekong which were blamed on gangs operating in the notorious drug-trafficking region.

China, Burma, Laos and Thailand launched joint security patrols on the Mekong in response.

Li Zhuqun, a senior international co-operation official at China's Ministry of Public Security said the gang had now been broken up, but that "efforts to ensure the safety of the Mekong River will continue".

"We will continue patrols and law enforcement co-operation with the other three countries to safeguard shipping on the river," he told China Daily.

Read More @ Source