A madam who forced hundreds of women into prostitution has been executed in China.
Wang Ziqi was sentenced to death for luring young women to work in brothels which were disguised as tea houses, beauty salons or hotels.
More than 300 women were victims between 1994 and 2009 of the gang she led, with seven dying in mysterious circumstances, according to Chinese news reports. They were forced to work even when they had their period or had had forced abortions. If they refused, they were beaten and put in a dark room for days without food. Wang and her sister, Wang Wanning, were accused of stealing the women's identity cards, ruining their reputations with their families and stealing all their earnings.
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| Wang Ziqi was executed after being convicted of forcing hundreds of women into prostitution |
The gang also arranged for people to teach the women the 'skills' of prostitution.
She was pictured along with associate Gu Mingtao, dressed in thickly padded pajamas, their hands cuffed, in court as their death sentences were upheld. In 2003, one of her victims was left paralysed after she jumped from the eighth floor of a tea house.
Yet she was still kept locked up until she was finally released by police in 2009. Another woman who went missing in 2005 turned up four years later at her husband's home, with scars on her hands and feet. She would then often wake up in the night, strip naked and walk out.
A psychiatrist said her behaviour was the result of being locked up and terrified for a long time.
Wang Wanning fled the country after her sister's arrest, but was caught and extradited back to China in April. It is unclear if she has been put on trial.
Wang's punishment was part of a major crackdown against corruption and organised crime in Chongqing, a major metropolis in southwest China. A Filipino drug trafficker was also put to death this week, despite a plea for clemency from the Philippine president.
Hours before he was executed, the unnamed man was allowed briefly to meet two siblings and two cousins who travelled to south China's Guangxi province.
He was then led to a courtroom, where the sentence was read and he was taken to the death chamber in Liuzhou, two hours from the prison, where he was given a lethal injection.
The Philippine vice president, Jejomar Binay, said: 'The subject was very calm, but his family was crying.'
The 35-year-old was arrested in 2008 at Guilin International Airport while trying to smuggle 3.3lbs of heroin from Malaysia.
Smuggling more than 1.76 ounces of heroin or other drugs is punishable by death in China.
© Daily Mail, London |
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